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MONTANA 

GOLD REGIONS: 

THE EMIGRANTS GUIDE OVERLAND.* 

ITINERARY OF THE ROUTES, FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY, 
JOURNAL OF RESIDENCE, ETC., ETC. 

New Discoveries and Developments of the Country in 1864. 



BY J. L. CAMPBELL. 



CHICAGO: 

PUBLISHED BY J. L. CAMPBELL. 
18 65. 



COLORADO, IDAHO, UTAH, 

NEVADA AND CALIFORNIA. 

Best way to get there from the States. 

CHUM, BURLMGTl AND fllll(T 1. 1. 

In connection with the 

Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, 

Extends from 

CHICAGO TO ST, JOSEPH AND ATCHISON, 

The Starting Point of the Great Overland Stage Company's 
Six-horse Coaches for 

Denver, Wafeo, Salt lake and California. 

Only 24 to 30 homes' time 

is required to go from Chicago to St. Joseph or Atchison, on the Missouri River 

During the season of navigation on the Missouri river steamboats run 
regularly from St. Joseph to Omaha City and Council Bluffs, touching at 
intermediate points, thus making a continuous route from Chicago to any 
point on the Upper Missouri river. 

•3TOTO PASSENGER TIR-AHTS 

leave Chicago daily on the arrival of Trains from the East. 

§W No other railroad than the Hannibal and St. Joseph extends through 
to the Missouri river, and none other than the Chicago, Burlington and 
Quincy runs in direct connection with the Hannibal and St. Joseph, from 
Chicago. 

Take the Koute that extends farthest West, and save Time 

and Money. 

Tlurougli Tickets to the Missouri river for sale at all the prin- 
cipal Ticket Offices in the East, and at the office of the Chicago, Bur- 
lington and Quincy Railroad, in the Great Central Depot, foot of Lake 
street, Chicago. 

BUY THROUGH TICKETS, BY ALL MEANS. 

SAMUEL POWELL, C. G-. HAMMOND, 

General Tioket Agent. General Superi itendent. 



1865. 

HANNIBAL AND ST. JOSEPH R. R. 

AND CONNECTIONS, 

The only All-Rail Honte 

To the Upper Missouri Eiver and the Far West. 

The best route from all Eastern Cities to the following*places : 

st. Joseph & atchison' iat an & weston, 

7 miles river navigation to LEAVENWORTH, 
40 " * " to KANSAS CITY and WYANDOTTE, 

BY DAI LY P ACKET! 

TO POINTS ABOVE ST. JOSEPH: 

A splendid packet leaves St. Joseph for Brownsville, Nebraska City, Platts- 
mouth, Council Bluffs, Omaha, etc. 



DAILY OVERLAND MAIL STAGES 

Leave terminus of road for DENVER, SALT LAKE, WIND RIVER 
MINES, IDAHO and CALIFORNIA. 

Daily Stages from LEAVENWORTH to LAWRENCE, TOPEKA and 
FORT RILEY. 

Daily Stages from KANSAS CITY to FORT SCOTT and SANTA FE. 

HdP Connections from the East, via the Chicago and Toledo, the Chicago, 
Burlington and Quincy, and the* Wabash Valley Railroads, make certain 
connections daily with the 

Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. 

\H& 8f7~L@MIB8, 

The Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis, the Ohio and Mississippi, and the 
Chicago, Alton and St. Louis Railroads make certain connections with the 

HANNIBAL AND ST, JOSEPH RAILROAD PACKET, 
Leaving St. Louis EVERY EVENING, and making sure connections at 
HANNIBAL. 

Passengers taking the North Missouri Railroad 

Connect closely at Macon with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad 

for the West, 



Hannibal & St. Joseph B. E. Freight Arrangements 

Are perfected so fully that the shipper can rely on Quick Time and Low 
Rates, with the assurance that all efforts will be used to deliver the goods 
without overcharge, and in as good condition as received. Through Freight 
contracts made at the offices of all connecting Roads in the East, and at the 
offices of the Company. 

$W* Through Tickets for sale, via HANNIBAL AND ST. 
JOSEPH R. R, at all Principal Ticket Offices in the East 

J. LK, HAYWARD, GEIt'L SJUFT, HANNIBAL, MO. 

W. P. ROBINSON, Gtn'I*F)*eigtrt';A^erit; '. P. B. &ROAT, tfen'l Ticket Ag't, Hannibal. Mo. 
J. Q..A. BEAN. Eastern Agent, Boston. ••« J. A: S: REED, Gen'l Traveling Agent. 

HENRY STARRING, Gen'l Agent, Chicago. 



PREFACE 



The discovery of new gold-fields in the very heart of the 
continent, has re-awakened a zeal for emigration and adventure 
among the communities of the older States, scarcely surpassed 
by that which led the first rush to the earlier El Dorado of the 
Pacific coast. The stories of successful gold-hunting in these 
freshly announced regions, parallel and indeed often surpass the 
golden tales of the California fever, at its height. Among these 
new theatres of interest, the young and yet imperfectly organized 
Territory of Idaho is destined, and indeed already begins, to 
shine conspicuously. With many an enterprising gold- seeker, 
the coming year, "Westward Ho," will mean Idaho. To furnish 
a guide to all such, to answer in brief the thronging questions 
from every hand, relative to the until recently unknown region, 
is the purpose of the following unpretentious pages. The writer 
pleads the fitness won by six months' research in that section of 
the country, with excellent facilities for observation and discovery. 
Any exhaustive treatise upon this theme must await further and 
far more extended and complicated exploration. The gold-hunter 
does not ordinarily wait for the savan and the government sur- 
veyor to precede him, but with a zeal which largely stands him 
in the stead of greater science, he pushes forward his quest, 
content with a clue, and never asking for a broader trail, if even 
the narrowest path opens in the coveted direction. This, the sole 
office of this little compilation and narrative, will not fail to be 
rightly located by those eager to learn first intelligence from the 
new gold diggings of Idaho. 



IDAHO 



Idaho is an Indian word, signifying " The Gem of the Moun- 
tains" an appropriate name for the attractive region which, by 
the organic act of Congress, dated March 3rd, 1383, wears this 
appellation. Nestling in the interior of the continent, traversed 
by the rocky chain that forms its backbone, the beautiful region 
is rich in its agricultural resources, favored in its climate, and now 
invites the eager gold-hunter by its shining ores, which until 
now have been locked fast as among the last surrendered secrets 
of the country. Idaho is indeed the hoarded gem that civiliza- 
tion is speedily to win and wear among its fairest jewels. A 
reference to the map that fronts this little volume gives the loca- 
tion of Idaho, as relates to the other Territories of the far West. 
It was carved out of large portions of three other Territories, 
namely, Washington, Dakota and Nebraska, thus making the 
chain of the Rocky mountains divide it a little west of its centre 
line. Idaho includes within its limits one of the richest and 
most interesting of all the gold fields that has yet invited the 
explorer, either on a golden or a scientific quest. 

Copying from the organic act, the boundaries of Idaho are as 
fallows : 

"Beginning at a point in the middle channel of the Snake river where the 
Dorthern boundary of Oregon intersects the same; then following down said chan- 
nel of Snake river to a point opposite the mouth of the Kooskooskia or Clear- 
water river ; thence due north to the forty-ninth parallel of latitude ; thence east, 
along said parallel, to the twenty-seventh degree of longitude west of Washing- 
ton. ; thence south, along said degree of longitude, to the northern boundary of 
Colorado Territory; thence west, along said boundary, to the thirty-third degree 
of longitude west of Washington; thence north, along said degree, to the forty- 
second parallel of latitude ; thence west, along said parallel, to the eastern 
boundary of the State of Oregon ; thence north, along said boundary, to the 
place of beginning." 



IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 



More briefly stated, the Territory is bounded north by British 
America, east by Dakota and Nebraska, south by Colorado 
and Utah, and west by Utah, Oregon and Washington. 

The area thus enclosed contains three hundred and twenty-six 
thousand square miles, which the reader will better appreciate 
from the comparative statement that it is seven times as large 
as the State of New York, and five times the size of the six New 
England States. 

The gold regions of Idaho owe their first discovery to the 
rebound of the wave of emigration that first rolled from the 
older States toward the Pacific coast, sheer across the continent. 
This vast adventurous army of restless and tireless gold-seekers 
first diffused themselves through the rich tracts of California and 
the Pacific coast, and has been working its way back thence 
toward the heart of the wilderness, until what was once laid 
down in the maps as an unknown waste save where sparsely 
investigated by various explorers, is becoming dotted with 
Infant settlements by the magic wand of the enchanter Gold ; 
while the region, for years abandoned as a wild for the Indian 
and the buffalo, is seeing the first frame work of civilized society 
laid across its whole extent, whereon will be built thriving and 
prosperous States ere the generation that first knew " the Cali- 
fornia fever " shall have passed away. 

The Territory of Idaho is as yet unsurveyed, and only imper- 
fectly subjected to scientific exploration; but when did the emi- 
grant and the gold-seeker wait for line and level to establish, and 
the patient science of the say an to enlighten, the path along 
which he reads the lure of a new home and wealth in the wilder- 
ness? To open new regions himself, to press with his own feet 
virgin soil, and expose with his own hands new fountains of 
wealth, is an attraction more strong than the most careful notes 
of more scientific predecessors could assure him. 

The purpose of the present little volume is no other than to 
furnish the gold-seeker who is intent on Idaho, with a few notes 
of residence and research in that region, with a carefully pre- 
pared itinerary of the route thither, and with such hints as to 
preparation and outfit as may serve the reader either in answer 
to merely curious inquiry, or the more earnest quest of intended 
journey thither. 

The writer left Omaha, Nebraska, on the 27th day of April, 
1863, in a company which, on arriving at Fort Kearney, had in- 



ROUTE OF THE WRITER. 



creased to the number of twenty-four wagons and some seventy- 
persons. Thus far we found the road good, and the weather 
most beautiful ; the sky had scarcely been darkened with a cloud 
except on one occasion when we were drenched to the skin by a 
severe thunder storm. 

The grass shooting forth from the effects of the rain, though 
scarce at the commencement of our journey, was now abundant, 
and our stock in a thriving condition. On the morning of the 
11th of May, we broke camp at Fort Kearney, and bid adieu to 
civilization. Westward our course lay along the north side of 
the Platte, at a pace of from seventeen to twenty miles per day. 
Here we crossed the threshold of the great American Desert, 
beyond which is a dreary monotony of sandy, sterile plains 
extending to the very base of the Rocky mountains, broken only 
by an occasional bluff, or a low, irregular chain of hills. 

On the 1st of June we reached Fort Laramie, which is a 
military post of several years standing, situated upon the south 
side of the Platte, at the mouth of Laramie river, and is now 
garrisoned with Ohio troops. The fort is imposed of logs and 
adobe buildings. 

Resuming our march we camped at the base of the Black hills 
the same night. There the road leaves the river, and crosses 
the hills, which are a mass of cragged and broken knobs, with 
many steep ascents. Upon these hills we camped two different 
nights without water either for cooking purposes or for our stock, 
but as we had found plenty during the daytime, of course we 
did not suffer much. 

From Fort Laramie to Bannock City, the country has a more 
wild and picturesque appearance. The famous South Pass is 
distant from Fort Laramie 320 miles, from St. Louis 1,580, and 
from the mouth of the Columbia, about 1,400. It is, therefore, 
nearly mid-way between the Mississippi and the Pacific. The 
altitude of this wonderful place is 7,490 feet above the level of 
the sea, and it is from twenty to thirty miles wide. 

The ascent is so imperceptible that it is not an easy task to 
ascertain the dividing line. A stony ridge crossing^he road on 
*he table-land is designated as the spot, and its position has been 
fixed at N. Lat. 42° 20', and W. Long. 113°. At the north lies 
that noble and picturesque chain of Les Montagnes jRockeuses, 
more commonly called Wind River mountains. On the south is 
situated Table mountain, an insignificant chain of low hills 

It is not a Pass, as many think. It may have some resem- 



8 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

blance to the pass of the Alleghany, or the Barrancas of Mexico. 
It is not what it seems to the general reader, — a pass dividing 
lofty mountains, whose frowning peaks and beetling walls rise in 
forbidding grandeur, looking down upon the traveler, as he 
winds his way through a giant gate-way to the Western Conti- 
nent. And yet the word Pass has its meaning. In America, 
where Nature has spread out her largest and most gorgeous map, 
where every feature of natural scenery — mountain and prairie, 
lake and river, forest and dell — dwarf their congeners in the old 
world, this steppe of the continent, — level-topped bluff, — upon 
whose surface there is room enough for the armies of the world 
to march over, is a most glorious and grand avenue. This is a 
suggestive spot ; here, memory is irresistibly carried back to 
earlier scenes, before plunging into the mysterious lands of the 
far West. The wonderful net-work of railway, with which steam 
has bridged the banks of the Hudson; the soft and sunny scenery 
of Ohio, and the sweeping course of the mighty Mississippi; the 
terrible grandeur of Niagara, and that wonderful chain of placid 
lakes, sweeping its w"ay from Ontario to Superior ; the verdant 
pasture lands of the North, the rich plantations of the tropical 
South, and the out-stretching corn-fields of the West ; lastly, the 
luxuriant meadow lands, and the gloomy desert waste of alkali 
and sage, of deep defile and crumbling bluff, like the ruins of 
some ancient world; — all pass before the mind ere they are thrust 
into oblivion by the excitement of the picturesque grandeur of 
other regions. 

At the South Pass we encamped the 22nd of June, when we 
took Lander's Cut-off, which is the old Oregon road, bearing a 
north-westerly direction. 

The next thing worthy of mention, is the Bear River chain of 
mountains, which our route crosses by a road opened by Govern- 
ment, at an expense of several millions of dollars, — an achieve- 
ment of the lamented Lander, in whose charge the work was 
completed. The road is an excellent one, and is from sixty to 
seventy miles in length, across the two ranges. By the con- 
summate skill of the military engineer, easy grades have been 
secured, the road daringly crossing at points where the summer 
traveler sees snow nestled beneath him in the sunless hollows, 
while above him tower the snow-capped peaks that hold their 
winter treasures until long after the summer solstice. 

From Fort Kearney to the South Pass, the greatest scarcity of 
the party was in the matter of fuel, though it was rare that a 



.ROUTE OF THE WKITEE. 



supply of buffalo chips could not be collected with a little pains, 
and serve a tolerable purpose for cooking. Grass and water we 
found plenty, in this portion of the route. 

When we reached Lander Cut-off, we found our full lack liber- 
ally supplied, while the abundant and nourishing mountain grass, 
and the frequent gushing springs, kept our stock in the best 
condition. We lost only two head of our cattle, and these from 
drinking from an alkali spring. Others similarly exposed were 
cured by administering pieces of fat bacon, the grease of which 
forms the antidote by combination with the alkali, the producu 
being soap, and the effect is to physic and relieve the animal. 

We are now beyond the Bear River mountains, and have 
entered long since the Territory of Idaho, whose boundary we 
passed thirty miles east of Fort Laramie. The route is through- 
out the most interesting imaginable. The wonders, of nature on 
every hand attract and delight the lover of her works, and often 
elicit from the dullest observer an exclamation of wonder and 
delight. Rough, precipitous peaks, snow-capped and glistening ; 
narrow gorges, steep ascents, or frowning, inaccessible acclivi- 
ties ; — among such our way was taken, the hand of man having 
so tamed the wilderness that our train of wagons found scarcely 
more difficulty than among mountain roads in the older States, 

In one of these mountain valleys, on the eastern base of the 
west chain, we saw a beautiful and valuable salt spring, — a spot 
of several acres, oozing with brine and forming a small creek of 
salt water, pronounced by one of our party equal to the springs 
of Onondaga. The banks of these springs, the rocks and ex- 
posed surfaces along the little creek, glistened with encrustations 
of pure virgin salt, of excellent quality, whereof bushels might 
readily be gathered. The future product of this spring may 
well vie with the richest placer of the region beyond. 

Here, too, we saw what to most of us was our " first grizzly," 
a huge creature of this class coming at a slow canter round a 
bluff, right toward us. He was an immense fellow, and of course 
no smaller in our eyes, than his actual size. The excitement was 
intense. Guns and rifles were got out, and in their eagerness 
some ran without their weapons, to 'be the first to get a shot at 
him. He waited for no near range, was not in the mood for a 
quarrel with strangers, but speedily betook himself to the fast- 
nesses of an adjoining marsh, and we saw him no more. 



10 



IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 




ROUTE OF THE WRITER. 11 

Six miles farther on, after the episode of Sir Grizzly, our 
party encamped and passed the 4th of July, in a beautiful little 
valley, which we named Independence Valley, with appropriate 
ceremonies. The Blackfoot creek, a tributary of the Bear river, 
which empties into Salt Lake, flows through this valley. It 
abounds in delicious fish, which at the time of our visit were a 
prey to the piscatorially inclined of our party, who with swiftly 
plying lines, landed nearly a barrel of plump trout and "mountain 
suckers " on the bank, in an incredibly short space of time. We 
feasted on fish, to the cooking of which we gave every variety of 
treatment, consistent with our limited cuisine. A number of 
pleasant farms are already located in this valley. 

And here our route intersects with the Fort Bridger and Ban- 
nock road, the itinerary of which is given elsewhere. As we 
passed that way on our return, it will be appropriate to make a 
brief detour in this narrative, to speak of some of its features. 

At South Pass, the route to Salt Lake diverges to the south- 
ward, passing Fort Bridger, a military post in the north-east 
corner of Utah Territory, garrisoned by California troops. Our 
own route from the South Pass is the Oregon road, opened by 
Col. Lander, as the shorter military cutoff* From Fort Bridger 
a route strikes across, rejoining this Oregon road at Independ- 
ence Valley, above named, and in very wet seasons this rounda- 
bout, by way of Fort Bridger, is to be taken by emigrants, to 
escape flooded streams and other obstacles. We refer to the 
itinerary for distances and features of these routes. With this 
cross-route from Fort Bridger intersects, at Soda Springs, a route 
striking south-westerly the Salt Lake route. Soda Springs is 
thirty miles south of the Oregon road, at Independence Valley. 
And here the two waves of emigration and gold-seeking from 
east and west, meet and pour into Idaho in one channel — this, 
from the Atlantic slope, by way of the Platte Valley ; that from 
California through Salt Lake. 

Soda Springs is situated on Bear river, a place of from 300 to 
500 inhabitants. It takes its name from the alkaline springs 
which abound in that vicinity. Here is concentrating the Mor- 
risite faction of the Mormons, a branch broken off from that 
great social Upas, by a refusal to follow the peculiar marriage 
tenets enforced in the realm of Brigham. The Morrisites number 
a little over one thousand, and they are rapidly taking up farms 
in this beautiful valley. They are mostly foreigners, and are led 
by a Scotchman named Dow. They believe in Joe Smith, but 



12 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

reject polygamy. They went to Soda Springs under escort of 
United States troops, to escape deadly persecution at Salt Lake. 

Soda springs gash forth from the earth in many places, steam- 
ing with heat, depositing snlphuret of lime, until mounds are 
formed many feet above the level of the earth. Some of the 
mounds were thirty feet high, appearing like huge rocks, and one 
seemed to be hollow, from the sound under my feet as I walked 
over it. These rocks are formed in this wise : the water breaks 
through the surface of the earth, then gradually depositing its 
sulphuret of lime, when at some point of time the passages 
become closed, and the water is compelled to find a new outlet. 
We found many new springs that had recently forced a. passage 
through the surface, as also many rocky mounds from which no 
water was gushing forth, the passages having been entirely closed. 

Within a few miles of these springs are vast deposits of native 
sulphur, inexhaustible in richness. The past volcanic character 
of this region is attested by the existence of a huge external 
crater which we visited, a few miles from Soda Springs, which 
will well bear the investigation of the scientific explorer, and 
deserves a larger space in description than we can give to it here. 

The Bear river is a stream 400 miles in length, which is so 
thoroughly an institution of Utah that it actually begins and ends 
in that Territory, though it throws its middle portion in a wide 
loop into Idaho. At Soda Springs it is about fifty yards wide, 
generally shallow, with a rocky bottom, and its banks vary from 
bold bluffs to smooth levels. Its waters, fed by mountain springs, 
are pure, and abound in fish. About 170 miles below Soda 
Springs, the Bear river flows into the great salt inland sea. Fort 
Conner is a military post at Soda Springs, established by Capt. 
Black, with a detachment from Gen. Conner's force at Utah, in 
the summer of 1863, bringing the distressed Morrisites thither, 
laying out their town, settling them in their homes, and building 
permanent and substantial barracks for the force the Government 
will retain here for some time to come. 

Our course now lay northward, along the west base of the 
mountains.- We reached Snake river, crossing it on Harry 
Rickard's ferry, which is the only reliable one on this portion, of 
the river. The current of this river is swift, rushing over im- 
mense boulders, which renders fording impossible. Mr. Rickard's 
ferry, situated at this point, is managed by himself, and is well 
worthy of the patronage of the traveling public. On the follow- 
ing page is a cut, illustrative of the ferry and its surroundings. 



BARKY RICKARD S FERRY. 



13 



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14 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

The Snake river, like all other streams in this country, 
abounds in speckled trout, and our party caught a supply, the 
largest one weighing four pounds. We next recross the Rocky 
chain, in order to reach the head-waters of the Missouri. The 
crossing at this point is much like that of the South Pass, but 
not so wide, with only one or two short, steep ascents. Upon 
the summit at this point, it was our fortune, with several others, 
to camp, the night of the 22nd of October, 1863, while on our 
return to the States. The first snow of the season had whitened 
the summit and the surrounding hills, and the cold was so intense 
that one of our party froze his feet, and another froze his ears. 
Spreading our blankets upon the snow, we turned in for the 
night, with naught, save the starry heavens, to shield us from the 
wintry storm. 

The following morning we descended toward the Snake river, 
some eight and a half miles, where, in a powerful contrast with 
our night's experience, we found a party of men busily engaged 
in cutting and making hay. 

From this point we reached, in four days, Bannock City, the 
distance being seventy miles. From this point I visited the 
various other towns, mining camps, and agricultural vallies of 
Eastern Idaho. As the fruits of such residence and adventure, 
the facts in the following pages are secured, combining therewith 
information derived from other sources, not to omit mention of 
the report of Capt. Fisk, U. S. A., published early in the present 
year. As above stated, the first discovery of gold in the Rocky 
mountain region, was due to the refluence of the tide of hardy 
explorers penetrating farther and farther inland from the Pacific 
slope, returning to follow their ardent quest in regions their feet 
had eagerly left behind in their first emigration. 

And meeting this returning wave from the Pacific, a new rush 
of emigration from the Atlantic slope is pouring to join it in the 
very heart of the continent. The mountain region, the last 
treasure-house of the continent, is unlocked. Not a week passes 
but new mines and new diggings in Idaho, and her sister Terri- 
tories, reward enterprise and enrich discoveries in these golden 
tracks, equally rich and many times more extensive than those of 
California. 

It is not the purpose of this volume simply to represent the 
treasures of new gold-fields as the sole claim of Idaho to invite 
emigration, but these as the principal attraction of a freshly- 
opened region, where communities will thrive, fostered by all 



CLIMATE AND SOIL. 



that Nature affords to nourish and bless civilized life, and where 
homes will not only be founded on the happy but precarious 
fortunes of the gold-hunter, but on more secure and wider foun- 
dations of successful labor in every department of life. 

We here borrow from Capt. Fisk, whose exploration was made 
under the auspices of the Federal Government, and the report of 
whose research was made to Government. 

CLIMATE AND SOIL, 

The Territory of Idaho extends across so many degrees of 
latitude, that on this account alone it has a great variety of climate. 
But added to this is the difference of altitude of its different 
sections, from its lowest plains and valleys to the high mountain 
region, which contributes to the same result. The metereological 
statistics, as well as the experiences necessary to give a deter- 
minate and reliable statement of its climate, its heat and cold, 
amount of rain and snow, length of its different seasons, and a 
comparison of them with those of other portions of the country, 
are of course wanting, and will be among the first duties of the 
General Government to supply. 

The southern portion of the Territory is mild, and from the 
testimony of explorers and settlers, as well as from my own expe- 
rience and observation, the extreme northern portion is favored 
by a climate healthful to a high degree, and quite as mild as that 
of many of the Northern and Western States. This is particu- 
larly the case west of the mountains, in accordance with the well- 
known fact that the isothermal line, or the line of heat, is farther 
north as you go westward from the Eastern States, toward the 
Pacific. 

At Fort Benton, on the Missouri river, in about 48° of north 
latitude, a trading post of the American Fur Company, their 
horses and cattle, of which they have large numbers, are never 
housed or fed in winter, but get their own living without difficulty. 

The comparison which would illustrate the relation of the 
climate on the western border of the plains of the Missouri to 
those of the East, or of known points in the Mississippi valley, 
are first necessary, and they may be, to a certain extent, made 
directly with the points for the same months. 

The elevation of Fort Benton above the sea, is 2,662 feet. 

The most conspicuous feature of the temperature at this post, is 

its near agreement with that of posts on the eastern border of 

the plains, — even in lower latitudes, #s Forts Snelling and Leav- 

2 



16* IDAHO, AKD ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

enworth, — from' the commencement of the record of Gov. Stevens 
to the close of October. For the portion of September observed 
and for the whole of October, it was warmer than Fort Snelling, 
and but little cooler than Fort Leavenworth. The extremes of 
80° for the highest, and 10° for the lowest degree, are nearly the 
same as at Fort Snelling, where the lowest degree in October is 
8° ; the lowest at Fort Leavenworth being 22°, and the lowest at 
Fort Laramie 20°. 

For November, the range of temperature was lower, and on 
six days at or below zero. The monthly mean was ten degrees 
less than at Fort Snelling, and 24° less than at Fort Leavenworth. 
It is also 14° less than that of Cantonment Stevens on the west of 
the mountains. The fall of the temperature, as winter approaches, 
appears to be much more abrupt east of the mountains, in this 
latitude, than at the West, or in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. 
The record for December is quite anomalous, and gives an extra- 
ordinarily high temperature. At all other posts of the North- 
West — Forts Snelling, Kearney, Laramie, and east of the moun- 
tains, and at Cantonment Stevens and Olympia, on the west — 
the temperatures of December are several degrees below those of 
November, while, as recorded at Fort Benton, December is 13° 
warmer than November. 

The record is very nearly the same as that at Fort Laramie, for 
the same month, though colder than this post in November, by 22° 
in the mean temperature. In the Deer Lodge prairie, which is 
along the valley of the Deer Lodge river, just west of the moun- 
tains, are as fine farming lands as can be found anywhere. The 
cattle here run at large in winter, and are the fattest and finest 
that the writer ever saw at grazing ; — so fat, indeed, that I was 
told they always select the poorest for beef. 

There is quite a settlement in this valley, and stock-raising is 
becoming a lucrative business, as the mining population in the 
vicinity is rapidly increasing, and affords a good market At 
about the latitude of 46° 30', the Deer Lodge river and the 
Blackfoot form a junction, and aro then called the Hell Gate, 
which unites with the Bitter Root or St. Mary's river, in latitude 
47°, and assumes the name of the latter. 

Along the valleys of both the Hell Gate and Bitter Root, there 
is a great abundance of excellent timber — pine, hemlock, tam- 
arack or larch predominating. Beautiful prairie openings occur 
at frequent intervals, with good soil inviting the hand of the hus- 
bandman. At the settlement called Hell Gate, situated at the 



REPORT OF GOV. STEVENS. 17 

junction of the river by that name and the Bitter Root, are 
several farms, which yield all the cereals and vegetables in great 
abundance, bringing good prices, such as would astonish farm- 
ers in the States, as parties are constantly passing through that 
region on their way to the mines, and glad to purchase supplies. 

At about 47° 30', on the river by the same name, is the Coeur d' 
Alene Mission, a Jesuit institution, founded twenty years ago, 
for the purpose of converting the Indian tribes in that vicinity to 
Christianity. This mission is situated on the edge of an exten- 
sive and beautiful prairie, and there is a farm of one hundred 
and sixty acres under cultivation in connection with it. The 
crops raised here would astonish Eastern farmers. As high as 
sixty bushels of wheat to the acre are raised in favorable seasons, 
as I was told by the managing agent of the institution, who has 
been such since its foundation. There are several other missions 
of a similar character further to the north, where the soil pro- 
duces equally well as at this, and where they raise as fine horses 
and cattle as can be found upon any farm in the country. 

To give a more full idea of this section of country, we quote 
the following from the report of Governor Stevens, who had 
charge of an expedition that wintered in that locality. He 
says : 

" I estimate that In the valleys on the western slopes of the Rocky mountains, 
and extending no farther than the Bitter Root range of mountains, there may 
be some 6,000 squire miles of arable land, upon grassed lands with good soils, 
and already prepared for occupation and settlement; and that in addition to this 
amount, there are valleys haying good soils, and favorable for settlement, which 
will be cleared in the removal of lumber from them. The faint attempts made 
by the Indians at cultivating the soil have been attended with good success, and 
fair returns mig'.t be expected of all such crops as are adapted to the Northern 
States of our country. The pasturage grounds are unsurpassed.. The extensive 
bands of horses owned by the Flat-head Indians occupying St. Mary's village, 
on Bitter Root river, thrive well winter and summer. One hundred horses 
belonging to the exploration are wintered in this valley, and up to the 9th of 
March the grass was fine, but little snow had fallen, and the weather was mild. 
The oxen and^cows owned here by the half-breeds and Indians obtain good 
feed, and are in good condition. Trobibly 4,000 square miles of tillable land 
is to be found immediately on the eastern slope, and the bottoms of the different 
streams, retaining their fertility for some distance after leaving the mountains, 
will considerably increase this amount. To bring out more clearly the character 
of the mountain region, I will, at the risk Of some repetition, quote from Lieu- 
tenant Mullan's report of his exploration to Fort Hall: 

'•'Thus we found ourselves at the man oamp, after an absence of forty-fivo 
days, during which time we had crossed the mountains four time?, completely turn- 
ing the eastern portion of the Bitter Root range, by a line of seven hundred 



18 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

miles, experiencing a complete change of climate, and crossing two sections of 
country, different in soil, formation, natural fe tturc, capabilities, and general 
character ; crossing, therefore, in all their ramifications, the head-waters of the two 
great rivers, Missouri an 1 Columbia. We had now a fine opportunity to com- 
pare the climate and character of the Bitter Root valley, with that of the EU11 
Gate and others in its vicinity. In the latter, sno.v from four to six inches deep 
was to be found, while in the former the ground was perfectly free from snow. 
It seemed as if we had entered an entirely different region and different climate ; 
the Bitter Root valley thus proving that it well merits the name of the valley of 
perennial spring. The fact of the exceedingly mild winters in this valley has been 
noticed and remarked by all who have ever been in it during the winter season ; 
this affordirgan excellent rendezvous and recruiting station for the Indians in 
it3 vicinity and those sojourning in it, as well as others who may be overtaken 
by the cold or snow of the mountains. It is the home of the Flat-heal In- 
dians, who, through the instrumentality and exertions of the Jesuit priests, have 
built up a village — not of logs but of houses — where they repair every winter; 
and with this valley covered with an abundance of rich and nutritious gras=>, 
affording grazing to their large bands of horses, they live as comfortably and 
as happily as probably any tribe of Indians either east or west of the Rocky 
mountains. 

" ' The numerous mountain rivulets, tributary to the Bitter Root river, that run 
throu-h the valley, afford excellent and abundant mill-seats • and the land bor- 
dering these is fertile and productive, and has been proved beyond a cavil or 
doubt to be well suited to every branch of agriculture. I have seen oats grown 
by Mr. Jonah Owen that are as heavy and as excellent as any I have ever seen 
in the States ; and the same gentleman has informed me that he has grown most 
excellent wheat, and that from his experience while in the mountains he hesi- 
tates not in saying, that agriculture, might be carried on here in all its numerous 
branches, and to the exceeding great interest and gain of those engaged in it. 
The valley and mountain slopes are well timbered with an excellent growth of 
pine, which is equal in every respect to the well known and noted pine of 
Oregon. The advantages, therefore, possessed by this section are of great im- 
portance, and offer peculiar inducements to the settler. Its valley is not oniy 
capable of grazing immense bands of stock of every kind, but is also capable of 
supporting a dense population. The mountain slopes, on either side of the 
valley, and the land along the base of the mountains, afford at all seasons, even 
during the most severe winters, grazing ground in abundance, while the moun- 
tains are covered with a beautiful growth of pine. The provisions of nature 
here are, therefore, on no small scale and of no small importance ; and let those 
who have imagined — and some have been so bold as to say it — that there exists 
only one immense bed of mountains from the head-waters of the Missouri to the 
Cascade range, turn their attention to this section, and let them contemplate 
its advantages and resources, and ask themselves, since these things exist can it 
be long before public attention shall be attracted to and fastened upon this here- 
tofore unknown and neglected region ? Can it be that we shall have so near our 
Pacific coast a section of country, of hundreds of thousands of acres, that will 
remain forever untilled, uncultivated, totally neglected? It cannot be.'" 

How true the words of Lieut. Mullan, uttered but a few years 
ago; for, to-day, the Bitter Root valley boasts of its farms and 



-FERTILITY OF TERRITORY. 19 

settlements, as also the Hell Gate, with its tributaries, upon one 
of which (Deer Lodge) is situated Deer Lodge, or Cotton-wood 
City, a small town, built after the rural style of log and adobe 
houses. At this point the American Fur Company have an 
immense stock of goods, from whence they are disseminated to 
all their trading posts. 

In these valleys much grain is already grown, and along the 
Bitter Root several flouring mills maybe found. Produce brings 
a good price, and. the increasing demand for bread-stuffs and 
vegetables at Bannock City, and other mining towns, will insure 
a more vigorous effort on the part of the. husbandman. While 
the Bitter Root furnishes the mines with vegetables, the Hell 
Gate and Deer Lodge valleys are not lacking in the way of sup- 
plying the market with beef. Mr. John Grant, who resides in 
the Deer Lodge valley, has some two thousand head of cattle 
and one thousand horses and mules, all of which thrive, winter 
and summer; from the first of which, choice beeves may be 
selected at any time. 

East of the mountains, or rather North-eastern Idaho, Is trav- 
ersed by the Missouri and its numerous tributaries, among which 
the most important is the Yellow Stone, whose source is high up 
in the mountains, from thence, winding its way eastward across 
the Territory, and flowing into the Missouri at Fort Union ; thus 
crossing seven degrees of longitude, with many tributaries flowing 
in from the south, in whose valleys, in connection with that of 
the Yellow Stone, there arc hundreds of thousands of acres of 
tillable land, to say nothing of the tributaries of the Missouri, 
among which are the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin forks, along 
which settlements are springing up, and agriculture is becoming 
a lucrative business. These valleys, like those of the Hell Gate 
and Bitter Root, have a genial climate, and are inviting to the 
settler. They are surrounded with hills and mountains, clad 
with pine, while a growth of cotton-wood skirts the meandering 
streams that everywhere flow through them, affording abundance 
of water power. 

The settlement located at the three forks of the Missouri is 
rapidly increasing, there having been over one hundred farms 
taken up during the past season. The first attempt at farming 
was made in the summer of 18G3, which was a success, and indi- 
cates the productiveness of these valleys. Messrs. Wilson & Co. 
broke thirty acres last spring, planting twelve acres of potatoes, 
also corn, turnips, and a variety of garden sauce, all of which 



20 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

did well. The potatoes, as they informed me, yielded 200 
bushels per acre, and sold at Virginia City, fifty miles distant, 
at 25 cents per pound, turnips at 20 cents, onions at 40 cents, 
cabbage at CO cents, peas and beans at 50 cents per pound in the 
pod, and corn at two dollars per dozen ears. Vines of all kinds 
seem to flourish, and we see no reason why fruit may not be 
grown here, as the climate is much more mild than in many of 
the States where it is a staple. 

The valley at the Three Forks, as also the valleys along the 
streams as they recede from the Junction, are spacious, and yield 
a spontaneous growth of herbage, upon which cattle fatten during 
winter. This valley, though unknown until recently to the east- 
ern populace, had been selected by Brigham Young for the 
establishment of a Mormon colony, and had it not been for the 
gold discoveries in this region, would ere this have been occupied 
by the saints. 

The Missouri and Yellow Stone rivers are navigable, the former 
as high as Fort Benton, for steamboats of ordinary capacity, 
and it is also navigable for light draught boats above the portage, 
at Fort Benton, as high up as the Three Forks. And we are 
credibly informed that parties in St. Louis are now constructing 
two boats of light draught for the upper river service, one to ply 
above the portage, and the other to ply between Fort Benton and 
the lower river boats, which may not— in stages of low water, as 
was the case the past season — reach their usual moorings at Fort 
Benton. Already a town has been located at the Three Forks, 
which bears the name of the east fork (Gallatin), and is rapidly 
becoming an important place. It was laid out in December, 
1862, by a company from Bannock City, who wisely appropriated 
one-fourth of the lots to donation purposes, as follows : 75 lots 
to the first steamboat, and 50 to the second, that should arrive 
there ; 50 to the first printing press, and 25 to the proprietor of 
the first stock of goods brought there ; also, 50 to the first church 
built there; 7 to the first lady who should become a resident of 
the place, 6 to the next, and so on, down to one. All of the latter 
Class of donees have received the fee, and many of the others. 
Situated at the head of navigation, in the heart of an agricultural 
country, surrounded as it is with rich mining camps, it does not 
require a deeply philosophical cast of mind to look down the vista 
of the future a few years only, to behold a beautiful city towering 
here, locked forever in the embrace of the surrounding hills. 



GALLATIN CITY. 



21 









! 



s-M 



a tk'M i I 41111 



f "i 



r flf^rW 1HI 




22 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

The Yellow Stone river is also navigable for several hundred 
miles from its mouth, penetrating the heart of the agricultural 
and mineral region of Eastern Idaho. And since such is the case, 
who shall say that her waters, heretofore unbroken by the steamer, 
will not soon swarm with the commerce of a new State, bearins? 
away upon its bosom the products of enterprise and honest toil, 
thus adding another artery to the great commercial world* and 
opening new avenues, through which the long-hoarded wealth of 
the mountains may pour forth to bless mankind ? 

The monotony of this section is broken by the various chains 
or spurs of mountains coursing through it, or shooting off from 
the main chain of the Rocky mountains, among which are the 
Black hills, Wind River chain, Bigllorn and Yellow Stone moun- 
tains, with many other spurs of less notoriety, which renders this 
section undulating, with ranges of mountains, clad with ever- 
greens, between which are beautiful valleys and winding streams, 
where towns and cities will soon spring up to adorn these moun- 
tain retreats, and give room for expanding civilization.. 

MINES AND SETTLEMENTS. 

In what we have already written, a foundation has beer* laid 
for the discussion of the principal attraction of this region, — its 
gold mines. These have already called from thirty to forty thou- 
sand settlers into Idaho, of whom two-thirds are west of the 
mountains \ most of them coming from the Pacific coast, Oregon, 
California, and Washington territory. The lesser share, east of 
the mountains,, are chiefly from the States; multitudes of them 
escaped from the States in rebellion, to avoid the troublous times 
that act has involved. 

Any elaborate treatise upon the gold mines would require data 
not yet collected from any source. Even a list of the mines 
would only be accurate on the day on which it was written, since 
new diggings are continually being opened and explored. The 
gold is found under the same circumstances as in -California, both 
in gulches and in quartz. 

The mines on the western slope of the mountains, first at- 
tracted attention as rivaling California in their stores of wealth. 
The excitement created by these reports caused an immense 
migration thither ; this, of course, led to new discoveries, sparse- 
ly spreading over much of the western portion of the Territory, 
and extending over upon the head-waters of the Missouri and 
Yellow Stone. 



MINES AND SETTLEMENTS. 23 

The Salmon River mines, situated upon the river of the same 
name, were the first to attract the gold-hunter. Florence City is 
the largest settlement in the Salmon River country, and the gen- 
eral depot for supplies. The Salmon River gold is rather of an 
inferior quality, being worth only from $13 to $15 to the ounce, 
while that of other mines in the Territory is worth from $16 to 
$19. The yield of these mines has been very large, and many 
fortunes have been made by those who reached them in time to 
secure good claims. 

South of Salmon river is a large extent of country as yet 
wholly unexplored. On Clearwater river and its branches, 
north of Salmon, gold is found over a large extent of country, 
Elk City and Oro Fino being the principal centres of business 
and population. At the junction of the Clearwater with Snako 
river is situated the town of Lewiston, the principal capital of 
Idaho, which is the largest town in the Territory, up to which 
point Snake river is navigable for steamboats of light draught, 
thus making a continuous line of navigation from the mouth of 
the Columbia, with the exception of two short portnges on the 
latter river — one called "the Dalles," and the other " the 
Cascades," where the Columbia breaks through the range of 
mountains by that name. Upon the Borse river, extensive mines 
have recently been discovered, and the town of West Bannock 
built up. Mines have also been opened on the Flat-head river, 
and on the Big and Little Black Foot rivers, all of which are 
upon the w r est side of the mountains. On the east side, the 
mines are rich beyond calculation, the yield thus far having 
equaled the most productive locality of California of equal ex- 
tent. The Bannock or Grasshopper mines were discovered in 
July, 1862, and are situated upon Grasshopper creek, which is a 
tributary of the Jefferson fork of the Missouri, three hundred and 
eighty-five miles north of Salt Lake City, and two hundred and 
eighty south of Fort Benton. 

The mining district here extends five miles down the creek 
from Bannock City, which is situated at the head of the gulch, 
while upon either side of the creek, the mountains are intersected 
with gold-bearing quartz lodes, many of which have been found 
to be very rich. But little quartz mining has been done, from the 
fact that there are no mills in operation here as yet, except a 
small water-mill, which drives but four ill-constructed stamps. 
This mill is owned by Mr. Allen, formerly of McGregor, Iowa, 
and is crushing from the Dakota lode, having taken out many thou- 



24c IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

sand dollars of a superior quality of quartz gold since June last, as 
will be seen by reference to a letter from that gentleman which 
we insert in another place. This lode is said to be one of the 
richest on the continent, and yields from five hundred to three 
thousand dollars per cord. There are many other lodes supposed 
to be equally rich, which have not been farther prospected than 
to discover and stake them out. The gulch and bar mines here 
have yielded exceedingly well, and many fortunes have been 
made, and we question very much whether there ever have been 
any mines on the continent where claims have paid so generally 
as at this point, and at Virginia City mines, of which we shall 
speak hereafter. Claims that do not pay ten dollars per day to 
the hand are not worked, as the whole country seems auriferous 
and abounds in ounce diggings, and in many instances the sluices 
yield the shining metal by the pound. There are three ditches 
or flumes here bringing water into the mines ; one is twelve miles 
long, and cost about fifty thousand dollars. Its volume is seven 
hundred inches, and sells at seventy-five cents per inch per day. 
The other two are of less capacity, but of equal importance, fur- 
nishing many claims with water. The bars — which are large 
slides or benches situated upon the sides of the mountains — are 
made available by means of water from these ditches, and pay 
exceedingly well. They are mined by tunneling under them and 
wheeling the "pay-dirt" out, when it is washed by sluicing. 
The pay-dirt of which we speak is that in which the gold is 
found; varying in depth, in some localities being but a few 
inches, while in others it is several feet deep; and is frequently 
found covered with many feet of earth, which must either be 
removed or the process" of tunneling be resorted to. The pay- 
dirt is of a peculiar color, and is readily known by the experienced 
miner. 

But few of the creek claims have as yet been developed, but 
such as have, pay enormously. Mr. Samuel Hackley, who is min- 
ing in the creek some two miles below Bannock City, has a very 
rich claim, as has also Mr. John Knowles. The former gentle- 
man, upon the arrival of Chief Justice Edgerton, invited him to 
visit his claim, upon which occasion he presented the judge with 
a pan of dirt, from which his Honor with his own hand soon 
extricated forty-eight dollars of shining dust; this not 
coming up to the expectation of Mr. Hackley, another pan was 
presented, from vhich a sufficient amount was taken to swell the 
sum to seventy-five dollars. Mr. Knowles above named invited 



MINES AND SETTLEMENTS. 25 

some ladies to visit his claim, when he followed the example of 
Mr. Hackley, and presented each of the ladies with a j)an of 
earth which yielded from twelve to twenty dollars to the pan. 
It must be remembered that this dirt was taken from the bed- 
rock, where the richest deposits lie, the gold, of courso, gravi- 
tating thither; but these yields are not extraordinary ; we have 
known as high as one hundred dollars taken from a single pan of 
dirt. These yielcTs are no criterion, as earth that yields twenty- 
five cents to the pan, and even less, pays good wages, and where 
these large yields are got, frequently much labor has to be 
expended in the removal of surface earth, etc. 

The claims mentioned above yield from two to ten hundred 
dollars per day, with a force of from four to eight men. We do 
not mention them as the only paying claims of the district, for 
there are many of equal richness, and when all the creek claims 
shall have been opened, its product will be immense. During last 
winter while the creek was frozen, many of the miners carried 
pay-dirt from their bar claims into their cabins, washing it with 
heated water, thus making from five to ten dollars per day ; and 
Mr. Hurry, who owns an interest in the Dakota lode, carried pay- 
dirt, or rather decomposed quartz, down the hill to his cabin in a 
flour sack, which yielded as high as one hundred and fifty dollars 
to the sack. Claims here sell all the way from one hundred to 
ten thousand dollars, according to their known richness, or 
the richness of the locality in which they are situated. 

Bannock City is the largest village in this vicinity, and is 
practically a mining town. The houses are built of logs, and num- 
ber about three hundred. It has about one thousand inhabitants ; 
and one school in operation, but no church, It has stores, hotels 
and saloons, in the extravagant proportions common to a thriving 
mining settlement, and one exchange office. Among its merchants 
may be mentioned Messrs. George Chrisman, Lovejoy, McDon- 
nel, and Carter & Co. It has a city organization, with courts, 
marshal and aldermen, and other officers. 

Between this point and Salt Lake City Mr. Oliver & Co., run 
a weekly four-horse coach, carrying both mail and passengers. 
The fare through from Bannock to Salt Lake City is fifty dollars, 
the trip being made in about eight days. This line is well man- 
aged, and the coaches are commodious. Government has also 
established a post route between these two cities, which is to go 
into operation early the coming year, and a line of telegraph is 
also to be constructed between these two points next season. 



26 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

Produce at Bannock was high when we left, which was in 
October, 1863. Flour was $25 per hundred; Bacon, 30 cents 
per lb; Hams, 60 cents; fresh Stakes, 15 to 25 cents; Potatoes, 
per lb, 25 cents; Cabbage^ per lb, 60 cents; Coffee, 80 cents; 
Sugar, 60 cents; fresh Butter, $1.25 ; Hay, 10 cents per lb, or $30 
per ton ; Lumber, $150 per thousand. "Wages ruled at $5 per 
day for miners and common laborers, and $0 to $8 for mechanics. 
Female labor ranged from $10 to $15 per week. Washing, from 
$3 to $u by the dozen. 

Bannock was partially depopulated during the past season 
in consequence of the rich discoveries made upon the Stinking 
Water, and the excitement consequent ther-eupon, but neverthe- 
less it will become an important town as it is situated in a rich 
quartz district, which is even now attracting machinery, Col. 
Hunkins, of Galena, Illinois, having already located a steam 
quartz mill here, which will go into Operation early the present 
winter. We were informed by this gentleman that there were 
two other mills of a similar character freighted up the Missouri 
the past season, which will reach Bannock early in the spring. 

Thirty miles south-west of Bannock is situated Jeff. Davis' 
gulch, or the Horse Creek mines. These mines were discovered 
in July, 1S63, but owing to the scarcity of water in that locality, 
few claims only could be worked, but such as were, paid from 
ten to one hundred dollars per day to the hand. Mr. Baugh, of 
Omaha, as also several others, made snug fortunes by mining in 
this gulch the past season ; and should there be much snow in 
the mountains the present winter, or rain in the coming spring, 
much gold will be taken out next summer, as the claims pay, from 
the roots of the grass down to the bed-rock, which saves stripping, 
and renders the gold more accessible to the miner. In these 
mines, good claims can be got by the first who reach there in the 
spring; many having been abandoned by the original prc-emptors 
in consequence of scarcity of water, and they are subject to re- 
pre-emption by any who may wish to occupy them. 
-' Upon Grasshopper creek, twelve miles north-west oi Bannock, 
discoveries were made in August last. Here are both surface 
and quartz diggings. The surface mines, however, were found 
to pay only moderately well, and are abandoned for the present. 
The quartz prospected well, but are left until such time as they 
can be developed by machinery. 

: It is an interesting fact for the investigation of tne areheologist 
and historian, that in the mines last named wero found abundant 



. MINES AND SETTLEMENTS. 27 

traces of ancient mining, in the shape of a "feed" and "tail" 
ditch, and a shaft where the miners had dug down to the gold. 
In this shaft is growing a pine tree one foot in diameter, attesting 
the period since the work was abandoned. Near by a couple of 
timber huts are still standing, in shape like an Indian wigwam, 
but bearing every mark of great age. In these regions dew 
never falls, and timber exposed to the weather lasts a long period. 

It is believed that these ancient mines were the work of Span- 
iards, penetrating northward from Mexico in the last century, 
Mexican chronicles referring to some such expedition in quest of 
gold, which pushed far north, beyond the Great Desert. 

And here, referring to the weather in this mountain region, 
the writer remembers seeing a simple grave of some emigrant 
who fell by the way-side, and whose resting place, months before, 
had been enclosed by a railing of split pine. The surface of the 
wood was still bright, as if just from the axe. 

About the time of these discoveries, others were also made 
seventy miles north-east of Bannock, upon the tributaries of 
Stinking Water, a small stream that puts intothe Jefferson Fork 
on the east side. Here several rich gulches have been discovered, 
that wind their way from the base of a high chain of mountains 
which runs parallel with the Madison Fork, between it and the 
Stinking Water. 

These mines were first discovered by Mr. Fairweather, a gentle- 
man from Minnesota; the first being made upon Alder creek, 
which, since its discovery, bears the name of Fairweather's 
gulch. This gulch is fifteen miles long and pays exceedingly 
well the entire length, the gold dust being very fine at the lower 
end and growing coarser as you ascend, until nothing but shot or 
coarse gold is found at its head. The large mountain from which 
the gold has been thrown— situated at the head of the gulch — 
presents indications of quartz, but owing to the richness of the 
surface-diggings, and the scarcity of men required to work them, 
quartz prospecting has been deferred until winter, when the 
great source of this immense wealth that lies scattered down the . 
mountain gorge, will doubtless be developed. In this gulch are 
located Virginia, Nevada and Summit cities. 

The yield of this gulch alo?ie, has been immense since its 
discovery in July last, when people rushed in from all quarters, 
depopulating some of the surrounding camps. It is estimated 
by parties most able to judge, that the yield has been at least 
half a million dollars per week. Virginia City, situated in this 



28 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

gulch, is the largest town in Eastern Idaho. It is of but a few 
days' growth, yet it contains some five thousand inhabitants. It 
is built of hewn log houses, with the exception of a few stone 
buildings, and is indeed a business place. 

There are two lines of coaches which run between this point 
and Bannock City. One is owned by Messrs. Oliver & Co., and 
the other by Messrs. Peabody & Co. The fare is ten dollars. 
The mines here are unsurpassed in richness ; not a claim has been 
opened that does not pay good wages, while many claims yield the 
precious ore by the pound. We have known as high as eight 
pounds to be taken out by one sluice in a day, with a force of 
from six to ten men. Mr. Barton, formerly of Ohio, took out 
$25,000 in sixty days; the largest yield in any one day was 
$1,874. We could mention several other parties whom we 
personally know to have made good fortunes the last season in 
this gulch, and very many have done Well. We have no doubt 
but that an immense quantity of gold will be taken out at this 
point the next season. 

Produce is higher here than at Bannock City. Flour was $30 
per hundred, and other things in proportion. Lumber was $400 
per thousand. The cause of its being so high was owing to its 
having to be sawed by hand, but as mills have been erected, 
of course it will sell at less figures next season. Wages w^ere 
from five to eight dollars per day for miners, and mechanics got 
from seven to ten dollars per day. Female labor, at the boarding 
houses and hotels, was twenty-five dollars per week. 

It should be remembered that green-backs, as currency, are 
not in circulation, and that these are "DrjsT prices." 

Four miles south of this gulch is situated Brown's gulch, which 
is said to be vety rich; few claims, however, have been opened 
as yet, it having been discovered late in the season. Fifteen 
miles north of Fairweather's gulch is located Beven's gulch, 
which is also rich, the diggings extending five miles along the 
creek. The gold found here is mostly coarse, and many claims 
pay " from the roots of the grass down," as the miners say. 
Here small fortunes are made quickly,- the gold being more 
accessible than in most districts. This gulch heads at the base 
of the same mountain with that of Fairweather's, and already at 
its source rich quartz lodes have been discovered. 

Three miles south of this gulch Harris' gulch is located, which 
is of recent discovery and equally rich. These gulches all head 
upon the same range, and run parallel with each other, emptying 
into the Stinking Water, as indicated upon our map. 



MINES AND SETTLEMENTS. 29 

There are also good mines upon the Balder creek, a stream 
putting into the Jefferson fork, on the north side, twenty miles 
above Gallatin. Near the head of this creek will be seen the 
head-waters of the Prickly Pear, which runs north-easterly, empty- 
ing into the Missouri. Upon this stream and its tributary, pay- 
ing mines are known to exist, but the scarcity of water has thus 
far prevented their development to any great extent. Upon the 
head-waters of Big Hole, Deer Lodge and Salmon rivers, good 
mines have been discovered, which will soon yield up their treas- 
ures. The numerous branches of Snake river afford the shining 
color, and it is expected that new discoveries will attract the 
gold-seeker in that direction early the coming spring. Upon the 
Saskatchewan river (which flows northward from this Territory 
and empties into Lake Winnipeg) extensive placer or surface 
diggings have recently been discovered, which will also have 
their attraction the coming year. Quartz lodes are also known 
to exist in all the ranges of mountains in this country, and when 
enterprising men with capital shall penetrate these hidden 
regions, this section of Idaho will rival Colorado in her stores 
of auriferous wealth. 

While gold has been found in paying quantities .all along the 
rocky chain, its deposits are not confined to this locality, but 
sweep across the country eastward some hundreds of miles to 
the Big Horn mountains. The gold discoveries there cover a 
large area of country, but the prospecter can go only at the risk 
of his life. 

I will quote from Mr. Vanderbert, who accompanied a pros- 
pecting party of fifteen from Bannock to that country early in 
the spring of 1863. He says : 

"We found the color in nearly all the streams putting into the Yellow Stone, 
and also in the tributaries of the Big Horn, but we were attacked by the Indiana 
at night while encamped at the base of the Big Horn mountains, two of our 
men killed, and several others wounded, compelling us to fly for our lives, some 
of our party starting on our back track for Bannock, while I, with the rest, 
started for the Platte. We urged our steeds to their utmost during the succeed- 
ing nights, secluding ourselves in the gorges during the daytime. We soon 
reached the Platte in safety, and thus ended our prospecting tour at the Big 
Horn." 

We quote the above to show our readers with what hazard of 
life the prospecter penetrates the dark recesses of our Western 
wilds in search of gold. But at this point, as at all others, the 
winding trail and advancing step of the white man will be irre- 
sistible, for wherever Mammon leads, there will also be found 



30 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 



advancing enterprise, preparing the way for the ever onward 
march of civilization, before which the hostile Indian and the 
buffalo disappear forever. Thus it will be here. Within a year 
the mountains of the Big Horn will teem with a mining popula- 
tion, and the Yellow Stone will smile a hearty welcome to her 
agricultural guests. 

THE INDIANS OP IDAHO. 

The riches of this innermost shrine of the continent have not 
been untold in miners' tales, and have for years haunted the brain 
of the gold-seeker on the Pacific coast, who has long believed that 
the El Dorado was still to be opened. The fierce implacability 
of the Indian tribes of the region has maintained the barrier 
against the whites. These aborigines have made this mountain 
territory the last stronghold of their race on this continent, and 
farthest removed of all from the haunts of civilization they have 
maintained the ancient wilderness of the race that in earlier days 
fought the advance of the white man step by step crowding them 
from their domain. 

The Indians of Idaho are the Snakes, Bannocks, Flat-heads, 
Black-foots, Nez Perces, and other smaller segments of once 
great, but now fading nationalities. Beyond all doubt hundreds 
of adventurous whites have paid the penalty of life for the fatal 
quest of gold in these mountain passes. Party after party has 
in time past been formed and pressed forward only to return 
scattered and broken from the fierce assault of the lurking savage. 
Referring to this subject, an Oregon paper of recent date says ; 

" A tradition has been current for years, that some lost immigrants, in 1845, 
while wandering through the country drained by the Malheur, discovered mines 
where gold could be raked up by the shovelful!. At the time, the discoverers 
were ignorant of the characteristics of gold in its native state, and accordingly 
they passed on, regarding the metal as worthless. A few years later, some of 
these men were attracted to California, and on visiting the mines there, almost 
the first remark was, that they knew where bushels of that kind of stuff were 
to be had. Since that date scarce a year has passed that did not witness the 
departure of companies of men who were sent for the purpose of discovering 
the country described by the immigrants. Thes9 exploring parties have uni- 
formly proved failures, owing, in a great measure to the hostility of the Indians, 
who have resolutely refused to allow the white man to prospect their countrv. 
At last, however, a party more fortunate than the rest has succeeded in find 
the long-lost gold-field, and, if reports are to be believed, the story of its richn 
has not been exaggerated by the original discoverers." 

There is no doubt that this long-locked region is now open( 



DRIFT MINING. 31 



and that Idaho will prove more marvellous than the ancient Ophir 
by its precious ore's. 

DRIFT MINING NEAR BANNOCK ftTT. 

The large bars which overhang the creek in the Grasshopper 
diggings — of which we have already spoken in another place — are 
being washed by what is called the "hydraulic method," an im- 
provement in the art of placer raining and washing, which origi- 
nated in California, and which enables them to mine and wash 
ten tons of earth, where, under the old methods, they could 
scarcely wash one. 

The process, so new to all but Californians, is well exhibited at 
Bannock City, and will be briefly described. The annexed 
engraving is from a sketch of one of the claims, and shows their 
general appearance. On one side we see the bank or bluff, formed 
by the drift which has not been disturbed. The top of this bank 
is the general level of the surface or inclination, which reaches 
back to the base of the mountains, upon which there is an occa- 
sional pine tree. The frame, or staging, elevated above the 
surface, is a flume or open conduit for the water, and is highest in 
the back-ground, and the water flows towards the bluff, although 
in the picture the descent appears to be in the other direction. 
At the end of this sluice a long hose-pipe of leather is attached, 
and extends down along a favorable part of the bank, to the 
level of the bed-rock below. In the engraving the bed-rock is 
not seen, being completely covered by the large boulders that 
have been excavated from the bank, and washed. 

The bank is not attacked by pick-axe and shovel, but a power- 
ful jet of water, delivered through the hose from the sluice 
above, is thrown against its base. By this means the earth 
is soon washed away, and the overhanging mass of drift of 
earth and loose boulders falls to the ground. As rapidly as the 
finer portions are removed by the water, the loose stones and 
boulders are thrown back out of the way, while the smaller 
fragments, together with the sand, clay and gold, are carried by 
the water into a long drain or sluice-way, where the gold is 
collected. The operation is thus a continuous one, and the 
earth is not handled or transported except by the water. 
3 



32 



IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 




SLUICE MINING 33 



The operation of sluicing is another striking and important 
feature in the art of mining, as practiced in these mines, % Earth, 
gravel and stones are washed by hundreds of tons in a short 
space of time, without being handled. The sluice is a long 
channel or race-way, to conduct the water or gravel, and is 
constructed either in the surface of the bed-rock by excavating, 
or made of boards. The former is known as the ground sluice, 
and the latter as the board sOfcg. A board sluice is generally 
twelve or fifteen inches in wit Jh, and from eight to ten inches 
deep, and is made in convenient lengths so that one can be added 
to another, until a length of two or three hundred feet or more is 
obtained. False bottoms of boards, pierced with holes, or a 
series of raised cleats, are placed in the bottom of the sluices, and 
are intended to receive and retain the gold, while the stones and 
gravel are washed away. Long bars, or a grating with the 
spaces parallel with the sluice, are, however, generally preferred 
to the cross-cleats or holes. 

The fall, or rate of descent of the sluice is varied according to 
circumstances, being arranged to suit the size of the gold and the 
nature of the drift. One or two feet in a rod is a common incli- 
nation, and with a good supply of water, is sufficient to cause 
stones two or three inches in diameter to roll from one end of the 
sluice to the other. The board sluice is more commonly used 
where the earth has to be handled, which is accomplished by 
picking and shoveling. While ground-sluicing is a process of 
drifting or mining, where the earth is washed away by the intro- 
duction of a stream of water without a hose. The earth, stones 
and gold, as they enter these sluices with the water, are all 
mingled together, but the current soon effects a separation ; the 
lighter portions are swept on in advance, and the gold remains 
behind and moves slowly forward until its drops down between 
the cleats or bars. The larger stones and coarse gravel are 
swept on by the current, and after traversing the whole length of 
the sluice, are thrown out at the lower end. The operation, as 
in the case of the hydraulic method, is a continuous one, and 
requires little labor or attendance, except to keep the sluices from 
clogging. This is done by one or two men who walk up and 
down and throw out the larger stones with forks. The water for 
these operations, at such a height above the creek, and for the 
elevated placers or "dry diggins" generally, is brought in aque- 
ducts or ditches from the sources of the streams, many miles 
distant, in the mountains. 



34: IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

The water at Bannock City is supplied by the following 
named companies, before alluded to* the West Ditch Company, 
the North-west Ditch Company, and the North Side Ditch Com- 
pany. The water, after traversing these ditches for many miles, 
is sold to the miners, being delivered from horizontal aper- 
tures, the openings of which are graduated to half inches ; and 
for each inch of water the miner pays from fifty to seventy-five 
cents, for each day of ten hours. 

• EIVERS. 

By a glance at a map comprising this new Territory, it will be 
seen that many of the great rivers of North America have their 
source within it. The Missouri river not only rises in Idaho, but 
winds its way for a distance of seven or eight hundred miles 
across the Territory. The Yellow Stone is wholly within its 
limits. 

The North Platte also rises in this Territory upon the east side 
of the mountains, and flows easterly crossing the bounds of the 
Territory some thirty miles east of Fort Laramie. Upon the 
western slope of the Rocky mountains, and w T ithin this Territory, 
the great Rio Colorado rises, which flows into the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia. The Salmon river, whose mines have created such an 
excitement and proved to be exceedingly rich, is wholly within 
its border. 

Both the great tributaries of the Columbia — Snake river and 
Clark's fork — have their sources in Western Idaho. The Hell 
Gate, Bitter Root and Kooskooskee all originate in Idaho, and 
flow westward into the Pacific. 

The Saskatchewan river, which flows northward across the 
British Possessions, mingling its waters with those of Lake Win- 
nipeg, also has its source amid the mountains of this Territory. 

Idaho is indeed the great fountain-head of the continent, from 
whence the waters diverge to the four points of the compass : 
easterly, emptying southerly into the Gulf of Mexico ; south- 
westerly, into the Gulf of California ; westerly, into the Pacific 
ocean ; and northerly, into Lake Winnipeg, thence into Hudson 
Bay. 

It may well be said of Idaho that hers are the springs of the 
great water highways of the continent, as also hers the source 
of incalculable riches, which w r ill hereafter be derived from her 
extensive mines to swell the wealth of nations. 



QUARTZ MINING. 



So 



QUARTZ MINING IN IDAHO. 

As usual in new 
gold regions, gulch 
mining, as the easi- 
est worked, is first 
resorted to, but this 
is mere gleaning as 
compared with the 
solid and permanent 
yield of quartz min- 
ing when properly- 
carried on. A pri- 
vate letter from Ban- 
nock City, an extract 
from which we insert 
below, gWes details 
of a simple and effec- 
tive quartz mill introduced there by Mr. Allan, being the only 
one as yet in operation in Eastern Idaho. Others more compli- 
cated and costly are being introduced. We give above a diagram 
of Mr. Allan's apparatus. 

"My first operation was to put up a very rude structure in the shape of a 
quartz mill formed in this way : An over-shot wheel, twenty feet in diameter, ia 
placed on a shaft eighteen feet long, with large pins in the shaft for the purpose 
of raising the stamps. These stamps are fourteen feet long and eight inches 
square, and strapped with tire iron on the bottom, which work into a box that 
is lined on the sides with copper plate galvanized with quicksilver, so as to catch 
the gold as the quartz is crushed and dashed up on the sides of the box. Then 
we have an opening on one side of the box, with a fine screen in it through 
which the fine quartz and fine gold pass, and run over a table covered with 
copper. The quartz lodes here are very rich. "We have taken out between fifty 
and sixty thousand 'dollars from one claim alone. We have five claims. We 
have picked up pieces that weighed two and three ounces of beautiful gold. 

J. F. ALLAN." 




WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR AN OUTFIT. 

Let us suppose that a party of men have arrived at the Mis- 
souri river who are going to Idaho, and wish to prepare for a 
trip across the plains. What kind of a team and wagon is most 
advisable to take ? What variety of provisions will be most 
suited to a journey of this kind ; what quantity ought a party 
of four men to take ; and how should it bo prepared ? What 
mining and other implements is it necessary to provide ? Will 



IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 



the party need a tent when their wagons are covered? What 
arms, if any, should be carried, and what supply of clothing 
should a person have for a trip of this kind ? 

The first question to be settled is, what kind of a team is it 
advisable to take — should it be horses, mules or oxen? For many 
reasons the ox is preferable. Firstly, a team of this kind is much 
cheaper than either of the others. Three yoke, at $15 per yoke, 
would amount to $225, and would be fully equal to two span of 
horses or mules, which would cost double that sum. Secondly, 
they require less feed and attention, and very seldom stray so as 
not to be readily found, neither are they as liable to be stolen, or 
stampeded by the Indians, as horses or mules. As to a wagon, 
it does not require an expensive one; just such a one as a farmer 
would select to do his farm work (a common lumber wagon) is 
the most suitable. This kind will meet with a ready sale in the 
mines, whereas more expensive wagons with springs and station- 
ary covers are in less demand. It should be made of the best of 
seasoned lumber, and put together firmly so as to stand the drouth 
of the plains. The thimble skein axle is preferable. It should 
be covered with canvass, and it would be well to have it lined 
overhead with oil-cloth so that goods will be protected from the 
weather, however hard it may storm. 

As to provisions and the variety suited to take, first we say 
that no party should leave the Missouri river next spring for 
Idaho without a supply sufficient to last them nine months. 
The emigrant may ask, why cumber our wagons with such an 
amount when we shall be but sixty or seventy days on the route ? 
But remember, you are not going to an agricultural country, or 
at least one developed, but are going to a very new section 
where produce is scarce and high, and has to be freighted many 
hundred miles ; and should all go with just enough to last them 
through, much suffering would be inevitable, and more particu- 
larly so the coming season, from the fact that the surplus of pro- 
duce grown in Utah the past season has already been freighted 
to this new Territory, and bears a high price, owing to the large 
emigration that has already reached the mines. When wc con- 
template the immense emigration that must inevitably pour into 
that country from both the East and the West the coming season, 
we can but admonish all who go to be sure and carry provisions 
enough to last until after another crop shall have been grown in 
Utah. There are further reasons why parties should take a good 
supply. It may be some little time after arriving before getting 



OUTFIT FOE THE TRIP. 37 

into business, and to have to pay twenty -five or thirty dollars per 
hundred for flour, and for other necessaries in proportion, or four- 
teen dollars per week for board, would be too great a drain upon 
the pockets of many; hence go prepared. 

Each party should take at least one good cow for milking pur- 
poses, as milk is relished upon the plains, and on many occasions 
when great dispatch is required in the getting up of a meal, or 
in case of a storm when cooking cannot be done, it is resorted 
to, and serves a tolerable purpose. A tent too is almost an indis- 
pensable article, and each party, however well their wagons may 
be covered, will do well to take one. They are readily pitched, 
and with a stove situated in one corner with the pipe protruding 
through the roof, they answer the purpose of a house, and with 
a good supply of eatables, one can be " quite at home," however 
distant from civilization ; whereas, without one, the party must 
cook in the open air whatever the weather may be, and the 
sleeping apartment in the wagon, too, is not desirable, from the 
fact that it is always stored with boxes, kegs, etc., while the 
tent furnishes a comfortable sleeping place, which is one of the 
requisites to health in a trip of this kind. 

As to a stove, many, indeed nearly all who cross the plains, use 
what is called the "emigrant stove," which is simply a small 
sheet-iron stove answering a very good purpose, but which soon 
burns out, frequently not lasting through the trip. The common 
cast-iron cooking stove, which sells in the States for from eighteen 
to twenty -five dollars, sells in the mines for from one to two hundred 
dollars, and may be readily carried and used on the way, and 
upon arriving, if desired, it will sell for at least one hundred 
dollars profit, Avhereas the sheet iron stove will be comparatively 
worthless. 

In regard to clothing, persons had better be too warm than 
suffer from cold, yet it will not be necessary to take a very large 
amount ; say one or two extra suits of good durable clothing are 
sufficient. Each person should have a rubber coat and leggings, 
also two pair of woolen blankets or similar bedding of some kind. 
The emigrant should have two extra pair of double-soled boots. 
Parties should go w T ell armed. Each should have a rifle or shot 
gun, and a revolver. Very few who cross the plains have occa- 
sion to use them, but the fact of having them along serves to 
fortify parties against an attack from either the marauding whites 
or hostile Indians. 



33 



IDAHO AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 



A pony is not an indispensable requisite to a trip of this kind, 
yet it is advisable for a party to have one along; they can be had 
cheap at the Missouri river, and will save many a step for the 
weary emigrant in the way of herding and collecting his stock ; 
and for the purpose of enjoying the buffalo chase or the more 
daring encounter of the grizzly, the pony is quite indispensable. 

The following table comprises the necessaries for an outfit of 
nine months for four persons : 



3 yoke of Oxen, $75 per yoke $225.00 
1 Wagon and Cover 100.00 

1 Tent 15.00 

12 sacks of Flour 36 . 00 

400 pounds of Bacon 40 . 00 

100 pounds of Coffee 30 . 00 

40 pounds of Candles 10.00 

10 pounds of Tea 10.00 

Yeast Powders 5.00 

50 pounds of Salt ... .' 1.00 

8 pounds of Pepper 50 

2 bushels of Beans 3 . 00 

15 gallons of Vinegar 4.00 

25 pounds of Bar Soap 3.00 

50 pounds of Lard.- 5.00 

1 gross Matches 1.00 



1 ten-gallon Water Keg 

1 Coffee Mill 

2 Coffee Pots 

8 Tin Plates 

8 Tin Cups.... 

2 Frying Pans 

4 Butcher Knives 

6 Knives and 6 Forks. . 
200 pounds of Sugar. . . 



1.25 

.75 
1.50 

.50 
.50 

,00 

00 



Carried forward 



,. 1 

. 2 

.. 1.50 

.. 25.00 

.$522.50 



Brought forward $52 

1 Skillet 

2 Water Buckets 

2 small Tin Pails 

75 feet of Rope 

(3 Table Spoons 

2 Camp Kettles 

4 Gold Pans 

4 Pieks 

4 Shovels 

2 Axes 

2 Bread Pans 

1 Wagon Bucket 

Hand Saw and Drawing Knife. . 

2 Chisels and Augers 

1 Pair of Gold Scales 

2 Files 

Hatchet and Hammer 

2 Gimlets 

10 pounds of Cut and Wrought 

Nails 

1 Whetstone . , 

4 bushels of Dried Apples 

1 bushel of Dri; d Peaches 

50 pounds of Rice 



2.50 
1.50 

.50 
1.00 
2.50 

.50 
1.25 
3.00 
5. 00 
5.00 



50 
00 
00 
(>0 
00 
00 

.50 
1.00 

.25 

.75 

.10 

6.00 

2.00 

5.00 



Total cost 



$570.85 



Should the party take a cooking stove with furniture, many of 
the above mentioned articles could be dispensed with, by an 
economy of use. 

As to diet suited to the plains, very many who cross the plinas 
seem to think that none of the luxuries of home can be enjoyed 
in a trip of this kind. From this fact they provide themselves 
with only breadstuff's and meats, while fruits, butter and eggs 
are left quite out of the bill. We have observed a very great 
difference as to the health of parties. Those who use meats and 
little or no fruit, incline to the scurvy, while those who use fruits 
and very little bacon or meat, never have it. Bacon and hams 
should be snugly packed in a wagon where the sun cannot reach 
them, nor should they be frequently spread upon the ground in 
the sun, as is often the case, as they will soon taint, but should 
be kept dry and seldom moved. Fruits, either canned or dried, 



OUTFIT FOE THE TRIP. 39 

may be carried with perfect safety, and a good supply of the 
latter should be taken. Butter too may be carried in safety by 
putting it up in; cans.. From ten to fifty pounds may be put 
into a can, and it will b'e highly relished, and should be taken by 
all means. Eggs packed in a box with oats or bran may be 
carried for use during the trip. ' The emigrant will find that these 
articles will add much to the luxuriousness of his table, and 
render camp life more like home.* 

THE BEAUTY. 

Have a good reason for breaking the old moorings before, look- 
ing for better ones, and when you start on a trip of this kind, do 
not cherish the idea that it is to be but a holiday excursion, soon 
to be over, when you will tumble into some rich gulch, only to 
come forth laden with stores of gold. * 

To succeed in any new field of labor, great industry and per- 
severance is required, and the emigrant to Idaho will secure his 
fortune only through hardship, privation, endurance and great 
industry. Let well enough alone when you are comfortably 
situated, and do not believe every story that goes the rounds. 
Few who appreciate these facts and go fully determined will fail 
to prosper. 

WHO SHOULD NOT GO. 

.Persons who have good homes and means of livelihood, should 
not be induced by extravagant stories, however true they may 
be, to emigrate to a. far-off country after a phantom fortune. 
Neither should any man who is so indisposed to labor as to have 
always failed at home to obtain an honest living, ever think of 
succeeding in a mining country, however rich it may be. 

PROFITABLE PUBSUITS BESIDES MINING. 

AD cannot mine. Some must make shoes, some follow black- 
smithing, others work in wood ; and the choice farming lands 
adjacent to every mining camp will be immediately put under 
the most profitable cultivation. Simply digging gold or other 
precious metals is a lottery in which there are many prizes but 
very many blanks ; and I doubt whether there is a class of people 
in the world who succeed generally so well in life as the mechanic 
and the industrious farmer, especially when these vocations: are 
followed in the vicinity of productive mines. 

* The foregoing Table of Articles comprising what is necessary for an Outfit, aro 
estimated too low for this season, ('65,) as Stock, Wagons, and Provisions, have gone 11.5k. 



MIOHIG-AN 

WAGON DEPOT, 

SAI3VT JOSEPH, MO. 

(865 B. F. LATHKOP, Agent. (865 



AUSTIN, T0MLINS0NI& WEBSTER 

MANUFACTURERS,; 
JACKSON, - - MICHIGAN. 



This Agency has been supplying the Frontier Trade 
since 1859 ; is the 

OLDEST AND MOST RELIABLE, 

AND HAS THE 

Largest Assortment of any Wagon House 

WEST OF THE LAKES. 
Our Stock embraces 

EVERY VARIETY OF WAGON 

REQUIRED IN THE MARKET. 



We are prepared to Fit Up Tkains on short 
notice, as Customers may desire. This work needs no 
recommendation, — has its reputation established with 
Freighters and Emigrants. 



HOW TO GO TO IDAHO. 



DESCRIPTION OF OUTFITTING POINTS, 



FROM ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI. 

St. Joseph is the largest city above St. Louis on the Missouri 
river. It contains about fifteen thousand inhabitants. It is 
beautifully situated upon the east side of the river, at the 
terminus of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, which thus 
connecting it with the great railroad system of the country, has 
given it prominence as an outfitting point, and has secured to it 
not only a substantial growth, but also an immense outfitting 
business. It is surrounded by a fine farming country which has 
long made it the mart of teeming products. 

In this city are situated some of the heaviest outfitting stores 
of the frontier. From this point an immense emigration leaves 
annually for Colorado, California, Idaho and other places of the 
far West. A good steam ferry plies between St. Joseph and 
Elwood, a small town situated upon the Kansas shore. 

The road leading from St. Joseph to Fort Kearney passes 
through a settled country, and the experience of the emigrant on 
this part of the route, will be much the same as it would be in 
crossing any of the Western States, as numerous settlements are 
to be found. Along this route Ranches abound, with abundance 
of feed and water. 

A party going west from St. Joseph would do well to make up 
their full outfit there. The claims of St. Joseph as a post for 
outfitting are enforced by the names and reputations of its numer- 
ous business houses, cards of which may be seen in the following 
pages. The following is a 

TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM ST. JOSEPH TO FORT KEARNEY. 

St. Joseph to % Big Sandy 10—156 

Kinnekuk 40 Thompson's 14 — 170 

Kickapoo 12—62 Kiowa ■. . . 1 4—184 

Log Chain 13— 65 Little Blue 12—196 

Seneca 11— 76 Liberty Farm 13—209 

Laramie Creek 12 — 88 Lone Tree 15 — 224 

Guittard's 12—100 Thirty-two Mile Creek 10—234 

Okaw 10—110 Summit 12—246 

Otoe 11—121 Hooks 12—259 

Pawnee. .' 11—132 Fort Kearney , , 10—269 



42 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

FROM OMAHA AND COUNCIL BLUFFS. 

Omaha, the capital of Nebraska, is the largest city in that 
rapidly growing Territory. It is directly opposite the lively city 
of Council Bluffs, the leading place in Western Iowa, though the 
lesser of these two cities. A good steam ferry connects them. 
A steamboat line runs between the Hannibal and St. Joseph 
Railroad terminus and. this place. Omaha is fixed by the Presi- 
dent of the United States as the point of departure for the Union 
Pacific Railroad, the ground for which great national enterprise 
was broken a short time since, with imposing ceremonies. 
Omaha is surrounded by a fine farming country. As a business 
point it has prominent claims fyr parties making up their outfit 
for the mines. Our advertisements furnish a reliable key to the 
attractions of this character, both in Council Bluffs and Omaha 
City. The great through route from Omaha to the gold regions' 
of Idaho, is the one we have chosen for detailed notes and tables' 
of distance. Let us first speak of other points of departure on' 
the Missouri river, and of Fort Kearney, in the Platte Valley, not : 
far from which the routes from these various points concentrate. 

Omaha is destined to be the market and entrepot of the Platte i 
Valley, through which is to pour the tide of emigration and 
travel, swelling each year and extending its facilities, until the 
slow train of the emigrant gives place to the rushing railway 
train, with tireless steeds and iron pathway. 

FROM NEBRASKA CITY. 

Nebraska City, N. T„ on the Missouri river about forty miles 
below Omaha, is one of the most thriving towns west of the, 
Missouri. It already numbers 3,000 inhabitants, and a fine 
country all about it is making it the market of teeming products. 
About thirty miles west, a collection of salt springs have attracted 
capital, and the present salt works will be made more extensive, 
and the product promises to be unlimited. At Nebraska City, the, 
party. going west from there, would do well to make up their full 
outfit. From this point some of the heaviest freighting trains 
leave annually for various points in the mountains. For the 
share of the route as far as Fort Kearney the emigrant's experi- 
ences are not unlike what they would be in crossing any of our 
newer Western States, for settlements are springing up all along 
the route, and good ranches abound, with abundant feed and 
water. But outfits cannot be so well procured after leaving the 



*»'•".. ..'• : " 



GTJRNEY & C0, TW 



DEALERS IN 



BOOTS 



AND 



SHOES, 



AT STORES IN 



Saint Joseph, Mo. 

Central City, Colorado Territory. 
Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. 
Virginia City, Montana Territory. 

Idaho City, Idaho Territory. 

WKere may be found good stocks of reliable custom 
made work. 



SAMUEL HATS, 

WHOLESALE DRUGGIST, 

No. 14 Second Street, 

ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI, 

Has constantly in stock, in large quantities, the following Goods, purchased 
from the Importers and Manufacturers, all of which will be sold on as reason- 
able terms as they can be bought for in St. Louis or Chicago — freight 
charges added : 

DRUGS AND MEDICINES, 

Foreign and American Chemicals, Patent Medi- 
cines and Perfumery, School Books 
and Stationery, 

Dental and Surgical Instruments, Trusses, Braces and Bandages, 

Paint and Whitewash Brushes, Window Glass and 

Glassware, Coal Oil and Lamps, &c, #c. 

Merchants and Physicians wishing to purchase, will do well to examine 
our Goods and Prices before buying elsewhere. Goods packed with care and 
dispatch. Lists priced and returned per mail. %W Orders solicited. 

DAVID MAY & CO., 



DEALERS IN 



Boots, Shoes, Groceries and Provisions, 
NO. 21 WEST SIDE MARKET SQUARE & 25 EDMOND STREET 

SAIIVT JOSEPH, MO. 
• 

ft^T The Highest Cash Price Paid for all kinds Country Produce. A general 
assortment of Outfitting Goods for the Mines, always on hand. 

WM. H. FLOYD & CO., 

"Wholesale and Retail Dealers in 

Fine Family Groceries 

AND 

BOAT STORES, 

No. 2 CORBY BLOCK, 

ST. JOSEPH, MO. 



DESCRIPTION OF OUTFITTING POINTS. 43 



Missouri River. The cards we give of Nebraska City firms, 
are a very reliable business directory for the emigrant. It 
should be added that the traveler will find a new tri-weekly 
line of excellent stages, just put on, running to Fort Kearney, 
making the trip in forty hours. Fare about $15. The follow- 
ing is a 

TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM NEBRASKA CITY TO FORT KEARNEY. 

Nebraska City to Grove of timber 15—81 

Wilson's Bridge 9 Head of north fork Blue River, 48 — 129 

Brown's Bridge 7 — 16 A pond side of the road 5 — 134 

Bridge over Little Nemaha 4 — 20 Prairie Lake 8 — 142 

Head of Little Nemaha 20 — 40 Junction of roads 5—147 

Olatha 8—48 Fort Kearney 30—177 

Beranger - 18 — &fi 

FROM ATCHISON, KANSAS. 

Atchison is a beautiful little city, situated upon the west bank of the Mis- 
souri, twenty miles above Leavenworth. It has a thriving appearance, and for 
several seasons past has been the point of departure of much emigration. It is 
connected with the East by the Platte City Railroad, which runs in connection 
with the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad. This place is the starting-point of 
Butterfield's Overland Dispatch, carrrying freight to all points in Colorado, 
Utah, Idaho, Montana, and the far "West. It is also the starting-point of Holi- 
day's Great Overland Stage Line for Denver, Salt Lake r Idaho, Montana and 
California. The traveler will find these coaches commodious, with the most 
obliging drivers and station-keepers. By this line the mines of Idaho, Montana 
and the far West are reached in twenty -five days less time than by any other , 
route or mode of travel. By this line the mines of Idaho and Montana are reached 
from Atchison in from fifteen to eighteen days, which is a great saving in time 
to the emigrant, when compared with a long, tedious trip across the plains by 
private conveyance. The writer has tried both ways, and is satisfied that to 
travel by stage is preferable,' and much the cheapest. 

In the spring of 1863 we paid fifty dollars to have our blankets and provisions 
carried through by wagon, and were twelve weeks in reaching Bannock from 
the Mission River. Had we gone by stage the fare would have been $300 in 
greenbacks. Allow, if you please, twenty days to make the trip by stage, 
which would have been quite sufficient, which deducted from twelve weeks, 
the time it took us to go by private conveyance, and we have sixty-four days 
left, which at $5 in gold per day, the amount we went to work for the day 
after arriving at the mines, would amount to $320 in gold, which at 225 per 
cent, would amount to $720 in greenbacks, to which add the $50 it cost us to 
go by wagon, and we have the sum of $170. Now to ascertain the amount we 
should have made by going by stage we will deduct $300, the amount of fare 
by stage, and we have $470. Time is money, and this sum was lost in time 
toasted upon the plains. Besides, those who reach the mines early in the season 
have much the best opportunities for procuring good claims.* 

This route of travel, it will be seen by the map, intersects closely with that 
from Leavenworth, requiring no separate table of distances. 

* The Stage fare has been raised somewhat during the past year. 



Bl IDAHO AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

FROM LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS. 

Leavenworth is a thriving city of from 15,000 to 17,000 inhabitants, on the 
site of the old military post of the game name. It has long since become the 
great metropolis of Kansas, and is the largest place west of the Missouri. From 
its location, it bids fair to maintain its prominence as the centre of an immense 
outfitting -trade. It is the principal point of departure for emigration from 
Missouri and the Southern States. The number of refugees from the troublous 
times in the South is immense, and only to be counted by thousands. 

Congress has authorized the building by the ' Leavenworth and Paw- 
nee Railroad Company, of a road from the mouth of the Kansas Valley, up the 
same westward to the point at the 100th meridian west, where the Union 
Pacific Road unites with the Iowa and Nebraska Roads. The Leavenworth 
Company had already been endowed with lands from the Delaware and Potta- 
wotomie Reservations. They receive, in addition, the $16,000 per mile of bonds 
granted by Congress, and were required to connect at the mouth of the Kansas 
with the Missouri Pacific Railroad, as also to build a road from Leavenworth 
across the Delaware lands to a point at or near Lawrence, making a junction 
with the Valley Road. Last spring the original company sold out to a new one, 
the President of which is General John C. Fremont. This company contracted 
with Samuel Hallet & Co., of New York, to build the road. It is being done 
with almost marvellous energy. About thirty miles are graded, from the mouth 
of the Kansas, and the grading of the Leavenworth Road is nearly completed. 

The following is a 

TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM LEAVENWORTH TO FORT KEARNEY. 

Leavenworth to Cottonwood Ranche • 12 — 152 

Lancaster .... .... 30 Rock Creek 20—172 

Huron 13— 43 Little Sandy 14—186 

Kinnekuk 10— 53 Big Sandy 5—191 

Walnut Creek s 8—61 Creek 8—199 

Locklands 13— 74 Little Blue River 9—208 

Minnehah , . 18— 92 Leaving of Little Blue 44—255 

Ash Point 12—104 32 Mile Creek 8—260 

Black Vermillion 12—116 Sand Hill Pond 14—274 

Elm Creek 1.0—126 Platte River 8—282 

Big Blue, Marysville 14—140 Fort Kearney 12—294 

BOOK STORE AND NEWS DEPOT. 



WOOLWOBTH & CO., 

Wholesale and Retail Dealers in 

Books, Stationery, Wall Paper, 

Newspapers, Periodicals and Printing Materials, 
For Cash Only. 

ST.JOSEPH, 2A.O. 



TOOTLE & FAIRLEIGH, 

WHOLESALE DEALERS IK 



Notions, Hosiery, and Boots and Shoes. 

Keep a Large Stock 4-4 Heavy Twilled Duck and Osnaburgs. 

m. 3 FOURTH STREET, ST. JOSEPH, MO. 

, -ii 

Merchants can rely on purchasing &0"ds from TOOTLE & FATRLEIGH as LOW as they can 
be bought in St. Louis or Chicago. 

FREIGHT "WAGONS. 

KEITH & SNELL, MANUFACTURERS, AURORA, ILL. 
LIGHT AND HEAVY WAGONS 

Of all descriptions, and Dealers in 

WAG-OIN' MATERIALS, BOWS, &>o. 

J. E. WOODWORTH, Agent, 

ST. JOSEPH, ..--*--- MISSOURI. 

STOVES & TINWARE 

Cooking and Camp' Stoves, Camp Kettles, 

Skillets and. Lids, Frying Pans, Russia Iron Coffee Boilers. 

ALSO, A COMPLETE ASSORTMENT OF TINWARE, 

Manufactured especially for use on the Plains. Bgp Emigrants will find it 
to their interest to give me a call before purchasing their outfit. 

J. W. 3F H A. L E Y, 

Eo. 7 THIRD STEEET, ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI 

THE CHEAP CASH STORE! 



SAM. S. M c GIBBONS, 

Wholesale and Retail Dealer in 

BOOTS and SHO ES,RUBBERS & c . 

Also, a large assortment of Men's Boots always on hand. 

No. 51 NORTH SIDE MARKET SQUARE, 

ST, JOSEPH, - MISSOTJIM. 



1WOOLWORTH & BARTON, 

CHAELES ST., between 2d and 3d, ST. JOSEPH, MISSOTJEI 

GENERAL STORAGE & COMMISSION, 

Forwarders of Colorado, Utah and Idaho Freights. 
ALL CONSIGNMENTS FORWARDED WITHOUT DELAY, 

By responsible parties, and 
A.T THE LOWEST IRA.TES. 

PENIOK & LOYING, 

Cash Wholesale and Retail Dealers in 

Drugs, Medicines & Chemicals, 

Glass, Paints, Oils, Pure "Wines and Liquors, Daguerreotype Goods, 
SCHOOL, LAW, MEDICAL, MISCELLANEOUS & BLANK BOOKS, 

No. 3 Second Street, Sign of thaBig Book, 
" \ I St. Joseph, Mo. 



W. R. PENICK 
WM. LOVIN 



SAUNDERS HOUSE, 

Corner 3d and Faraon Streets, 

J. SAUNDERS, Sen., Proprietor. 

ARCADE CLOTHING STORE. 



FRED. BAERMAN & CO., 

Wholesale & Retail Clothiers, 

AND DEALERS IN 

Gents' Furnishing Goods, Trunks, Yalises, B'ankets, etc. 

(U3ir Great Outfitting Point for the Mines. .Jjp} 

No. 4 Corby's Block, next to Wyeth's, ST. JOSEPH, MISSOUEL 



46 



IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 



THE SOUTH ROUTE FROM FORT KEARNEY. 

FROM FORT KEARNEY TO SALT LAKE Via DENVER CITY. 



Omaha to 

Fort Kearney 

Platte Station 

Craig 

Plum Creek 

Willow Island 

Midway 

Gilman's 

Cottonwood Springs 

Cold Springs 

Fremont Springs . . . 

Elkhoni 

Alkali Lake 

Sand Hill 

Diamond Springs... 

South Platte 

Julesburg 

Antelope. 

Spring Hill 

Dennison's 

Valley Station 

Kelly's 

Beaver Creek 

Bijou 

Fremont's Orchard . 

Eagle's Nest 

Latham 

Big Bend 

Fort Lupton 

Pierson's. 

Denver 

Child's 

Boon's 

Little Tbompson ... 

Big Thompson 

Laporte 

Boner 

Cherokee 

Virginia Dale 



TABLE OF DISTANCES. 

Willow Springs 15—701 

197 Big Laramie 15—716 

. 10—207 Little Laramie 14— 730 

, 11—218 Cooper Creek 17—747 

, 15—233 Kock Creek 11—758 

, 15—248 Medicine Bow 17— 775 

. 14—252 Elk Mountain 8—783 

, 15—267 Pass Creek 14— 797 

. 17—234 North Platte 16—813 

; 15—299 SigeCreek 14—827 

. 14—313 Pine Grove 10—837 

.11—324 Bridger's Pass 9—846 

. 14—338 Sulphur Springs 10—856 

. 12—350 Waskie.. 11—867 

. 11—361 Duck Lake 13— 8S0 

. 15—376 Dug Springs 12—892 

. 14—390 Laclede 15— 907 

. 12—402 Big Pond. 12— 919 

. 13—415 Black Buttes 14—933 

. 13—428 Rock Point 14—947 

. 12—440 Salt Wells 14—961 

, 15—455 Rock Spring 14 — 9^75 

. 12—467 Green River 15—990 

, 20—487 Lone Tree 15—1005 

. 16—503 Ham's Fork 18—1023 

. 11—514 Church Buttes 12—1035 

. 12—526 Millersville 8—1043 

. 15—541 FortBridger 13—1056 

. 17—558 Muddy 12—1068 

. 15—573 Quaking Asp Springs 10—1078 

, 14—587 Bear River 20—1098 

.11—598 Needle Rock 10—1108 

. 12—610 Echo Canon 10—1118 

. 18—628 HangingRock 10—1128 

. 8—636 Weber 10—1138 

. 16—652 Daniel's 12—1150 

. 10—662 Kimball's 11—1161 

, 12—674 Mountain Dell 15—1176 

. 12—686 Great Salt Lake City 14—1190 



SALT LAKE TO BANNOCK CITY. 



Salt Lake City to 

Farmington 17 

Ogden 20—37 

Brewery 7 — 44 

Brigham City 15—59 

Box Elder 4—63 

Wellsville 1 1—74 

Logan 9 — 83 

Summit Creek 8 — 91 



Franklin 12—103 

Bear River ferry 10 — 113 

Deep Canon 14—127 

Cotton-wood Creek 6—133 

Bear River 10—143 

Canon Creek .' 2—145 

Sola Springs 16—161 

Black Foot Creek 12—173 

Black Foot crossing 17 — 190 



Here the route intersects with the Nor^h Platte route at Independence Valley, 
shown in the extended table above. 



M. MAT. ISAAC WEIL. ISAAC CAHN. 

MAY, WEIL «fc CO., 

Wholesale Dealers in 

Staple & Fancy Dry Goods, 

ci.iO'gfjeiing-, 

EMIGRANT FURNISHING GOODS, 

'NOTIONS, ETC., 

THIRD STREET, next door to the Express Office, 

ST, JOSEPH, MO. 

W.IBERGMAN & CO., 

Wholesale and Retail Dealers in 

Men's and Boys' Clothing, 

GHEISITS' FURNISHING GOODS, 



Boots and Shoes, Hats and Caps, 



Ho. 39 Market Square, Corner Felix and Second Streets, 

Klos' Old Stand, - - - St. Joseph, Mo. 



T. J©. STEAM FE 

E. BLACKESTON, Proprietor. 



(I 



Good Boat, Low Ferriage 

AND 

ALWAYS READY. 

■ 

■ 



THE PENNSYLVANIA CENTRAL 

DOUBLE TRACK RAILROAD. Shortest, Quickest and Best 
Route between the East and West. The. track is stone ballasred, and entirely free from 
dust. On the arrival of Passenger Trains fr6m the West, at the Union Depot, i ittsburg, FIVE 
DAILY TRAINS leave as fol.ows: 

Fast Mail, 3 00 A. M., (except Sunday.) I Accommodation, 6.30 A. M., (except Sunday.) 
Pitt. & Erie Mail, 1.40 P.M. (except Sunday. | Philadelphia "xpr.ss, 4.35 P. M., Every Day. 
Fast Line, 9.40 P.M., (except Surid y. 
Running through without change of Ca-s, to HARRISBURG, PHILADELPHIA, BALTI- 
MORE, and NEW YORK Cvia Allentown,) one to three hours in advance of oilier lines, connec- 
ting direct for all New England Towns, a'. d Washington Ciy. 

This is the only route by which pass ngers, leaving C iiro at 2 00 a. m. Saturday,' Quincy at 
3.00 a. M. Saturd<y, St. Louis at 6*45 a. m. Saturday, Chi ago at 5.30 p. in. Saturday, Indiana- 
polis at 8.20 p.m. Saturday. Jeffer3onville ar. 2.25 p. m. Saturday, Run Through Direct to 
Eastern Cities, arriving 27 Hours in advance of other routes ! 

Baggage Checked Through, and Transferred Free. Fare always as low as by other routes. 
H. W. GWINNER, Gen'l Ticket Agent, Philadelphia. 
W. H HOLMES, Gen'l Passenger Agen% Chicago, III. 
T. L.KIMBALL, Asst. Gen'l Pass. Ag't, Chicago, 111. 

Ticket Office, Metropolitan Block, Chicago. 

FREIGHTS. 

By thi3 route Freights of all descriptions can be forwar ed to and from Philadelphia, New 
York, Boston or Baltimore, to and from any point on tha Railroads of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, 
Uiinois, Wisconsin, Iiwa tfr Missouri, by Railroad din ct. 

The Peansylvania Central Railroad also connects at Pittsburg- with Steamers, by which 
Goods can be forwarded to any point on the Ohio, Muskingum, Kentucky, r ) ennessee, Cumber- 
land, Illinois, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas,. Arkansas and Red Rivers; and at 
Cleveland, Sandusky aud Chicago, with Steamers to all ports on the North -Western Lakes. 

Merchants and Shippers entrusting the transportation of their Freight to this Company, can 
rely with confidence, on its speedy teansit. 

THE RATES OF FREIGHT to and from points in the West by the Pennsylvania Central 
Railroad are at all times as favorable as are cha ged by other Railroad Companies. 

$^~ Be particular to mark packages, '• Via Penu'a Central R. R." 

For Fceight Contracts or Shipping Directions, apply to or address either of the following 
Agents of the Company : , 

S. B. KINGSTO N T , Jr., Freight Ag't. Phili. J. H. McCOLM, Portsmouth, Ohio. 
C. A. CARPENT * K, Freight Agt., Pittsburg. J. M. LOVE, Marysville, Ky . 
CLARKE & CO., Trans er Ag s., " HA i L & CO. , Marietta, Ohio. 

H. W. BROWiSf & CO., Cincinnati, Ohio. E. AYh RS, Muskingum River. 

R C. MELDRUM & CO., Madbon, Indiana. W. H. & E. L. LANGLEY, Gdlipolis, Ohio. 
MOREHtiAD & CO., Louisville, Ky. H. S. PIERCE & CO., Za: es/.lle, " 

W. M. AIKMAN Evarsville, Ind. JN. H. HUDSO H, Ripley, " ■ 

R. F. SASS, Sr. Louis, Missouri. R. C. MELDRUM. Gen'l Travel ng Agt. 

CLARKE & CO., Chicago, 111. < • 

LIVE STOCK. 

Drovers and Farmer? will find this a most advantageous route for Live Stock. Capacious 
Yards, well watered and supplied with every convenience, have been Opened on this line and its 
connections, and every attention is paid to their wants. From Hani-burg, wh> re will be found 
every convenience for feeding and resting, a choice is offered of the Philadelphia, New York and 
Baltimore Markets. This will also be found the shortest, quickest and most direct route for Stock 
to New York — (via Allentown) and with fewer < hanges than any other. 

ENOCH LEWIS. General Superintendent, Altoona,Pa. 

H. H. HNUSTON, General Freight Agent, Philadelphia. 

FAST FREIGHTS. T 

i 

THE. STAR UNION LINE CARS are run through' by tha Pennsylvania route to Chicago, 
Indianapolis, Louisville, St. Louis, &c, without trnnsfer, and all shipments by this lin Q on Time 
Contracts, will be guaranteed as follows : Boston to Chicago, 8 days. New York to Chicago, T 
days. Philadelphia to Chicago, 6 days, 4@=* with a forfeiture ot 5 cents per 100 lbs., for every 
day's delay, which will be promptly pad by Western Agents. Parties ordering Freights from 
East, should order the packages marked " Union Line," and refer shippers for contracts, &c, to 

MOSKS POT PER, 77 Washington Street, Boston.' 
J. L. GOSSLER, 27 Broadway, N-w York. 
JOHN McKNIGHT, 415 Chestnut St, Philadelphia. 
Shippers from the West will apply or ad lres« by mail for Bills of Lading, &c. or auv desired 
information, to W. W. CHaNDLEk. Chicago. III. ; R. C. MELDRUM, Inli maplis, Ind. ; N. 
STEPHENS, St. Louis, Mo.; J. W. MILL GAN, Columbus, O. ; H. W. BROWN, Cincinnati, 
Ohio; MOREHEAD & CO., Louisville, Ky. 



CHICAGO I ST. LOUIS R R. LI 

{Formerly St. Louis, Alton & Chicago B. M.) 

The only Route between Chicago, Bloomington, 
Alton, Springfield and St. Louis, without 
Change of Cars. 



SHORTEST MB QUICKEST ROUTE 

TO JOLIET, PEORIA, DECATUR AND JACKSONVILLE. 



TWO EXPRESS TRAINS 

Leave St. Louis and Chicago Daily. 



LOCAL CONNECTIONS. 

AT CHENOA— For Peoria, Galesburg, Burlington, etc. 
AT BLOOMINGTON— For LaSalle, Dixon, Fulton, Freeport, Galena, 
Dubuque, and all points in Northern Iowa. 

AT SPRINGFIELD— For Decatur, Jacksonville, Quincy, Keokuk, Des 
Moines, Ottumway, and all points in Southern Iowa. 
Connecting at Chicago with the lines to all points North and East, and at 
St. Louis with Railroad and Steamboat Lines South and Southwest. 



Baggage Checked Through 

TO ALL IMPORTANT POINTS. 



ELEGANT SLEEPING CARS 

Are run on Night Trains through to Chicago and St. Louis. 

^"* Splendidly Furnished Saloon Cars, for Ladies and Families, and comfortable 
Smoking Cars for Gentlemen, are run on Day Trains. 

T?OT? TTPTTT?TR apply at the Company's Office, 59 Dearborn Street ; at the 
iVil ll^XVJjlO, We8t glde UhJon Depot, Chicago; and at No. 54 Fourth 
Street, under Planter's House, St. Louis, Missouri. 

GENERAL OFFICE, CHICAGO, ILL. 

EOBEET HALE, Gen'l Sup't. HALE WALLER, Gen'l Freight Agent. 

A WTT1WAV CU.I1 TJ«U„* A~».,* 



JACOB GOODLIVE, JR., 



DEALER IN 




-WATCHES, 

CLOCKS, JEWELRY, 

CUTLERY, FANCY GOODS, SPECTACLES, 

Fire- Arms and Ammunition, and every variety of Musical 

Instruments, 

Ko. 12 Third St., opposite U. S. Express Office, ST. JOSEPH, MO. 

The Drawing of the Patee House Lottery 

Will take place APRIL 26, 1865. TICKETS $2.00. Address the Proprie- 
tor, JOHN PATEE, St. Joseph, Mo., or any of the following named Agents, 
enclosing $2.00, and receive a ticket by return mail: 

JOHN CHINNARD Denver City 

H. M. HIGGINS Chicago 

J. R. SKINNER :: Quincy 

BALMER & WEBBER, Music Dealers, near cor. 4th & Olive Sts., St. Louis 

WOOLWORTH & CO St. Joseph 

Refer to A. Beattie & Co., John Corby, Milton & Tootle, Bankers, Nave 
McCord & Co., St. Joseph, Mo. 

W. M. WYETH & CO., 

Importers, Wholesale and Retail Dealers in 

HARDWARE, SADDLERY 

MINING TOOLS, LEATHEE, &c. 

CORBY'S BLOCK, MARKET SQUARE. 

ST. JOSEPH, MO. 

Baltimore Clothing House, 

"No. 49. 

GREAT OUTFI TTING DEPOT FO R EMIGRANTS. 

We keep constantly on hand, a Large and Select Stock of 

Beady-Made Clothing, Furnishing Goods, Blankets, 

RUBBER GOODS, HATS, CAPS, &c. 
No. 49 Edmond St., near Market Square, ST. JOSEPH, MO. 

F. ST^INER & CO. 



JTJJT PUBLISHED, 

■■■•S3! ,. 

BANDITTI OF IDAHO. 




[How in a Gambling Saloon iu Eannuck City.] 



Tor -Sale, at Wholesale . and Setail, 

BY 

John R.- .Walsh, 

CHICAGO, BLLBNOI3. 

PRICE, - - - - - - 50 CENTS. 



THE EMIGRANT'S GUIDE 

PROM THE MISSOURI EIVER TO IDAHO. 



(Note. — The following, it should be stated, does not give the full list of all the ranches on the 
route, but those given -are sufficient and reliable, and the success of the emigrant in finding 
others will still give him no cauie to complain of misrepresentation in respect to accommodations 
on the route.) 

One mile from Omaha, you will f?nd good accommodations for your 

stock 1 

Little Papillon „ 8— 9 

Papillon 4— 13 

Reed's Ranche. Water, grass and good camping 8 — 16 

J. F. Hunger. General accommodations S — 1 9 

Elkhorn City. Good accommodalions for emigrants 3 — 22 

Bridgeport. (On Elkhorn river, one mile from Elkhorn City. Several 

stores and large settlement, — good camping ground for the night. 

Wood, water and grass.) # 1 — 23 

Farmers' Hou?e. Good accommodations ; plenty of water and grass.. 11 — 34 

Fremont. Small town and settlement 3 — 37 

Dale House. Corn meal, hay and stabling. Go^d camping ground. . . . 3 — 40 
North Bend. A good camping ground here. The Platte strikes the 

road 12— 52 

Ranche and store. 2 — 54 

Platte Valley House: by R. Graham. Blacksmithing, wood, water and 

grass 1 — 55 

Buchanan House, at Shell Creek. Wood, water and grass 8— 63 

Sixty-nine Mile House — from Omaha. General accommodations; good 

water and grass. . 6 — 69 

Junction Ranche: by H. Bushnell. General accommodations 2 — 71 

Joseph Russell's. Wood, water and grass 1 — 72 

Peter Murie's. All kind3 of produce for ede. Good camping ground. 10 — 82 
Columbus. Situated on the north branch of the Loup Fork. Ferry 

across here. The last town you will pass. Here secure any needed 

supplies not before secured 3 — 85 

Crossing Loup Fork, the next ranche is 

Guy C. Barnum's. Good camping ground 1 — 86 

Prairie Creek Ranche. Good accommodations. Creek is bridged. . . . 11 — 97 

James Cummins' Station 9 — 106 

Lone Tree Ranche. Groceries, hay, corn and stabling. On the bank 

of the Platte 25—131 

Station, by Samuel G. Ilayward. Good camping ground 1 — 132 

E. D. Hurley's. Groceries, stock of all kinds kept 10 — 142 

Jesse Shoemaker's Point. Good accommodations 1 — 143 

Grand Island Citv 10—153 

Wood River ". _ 10—163 

Bovd Brothers. Nebraska Centre post office. Brewery and blacksmith 

shop 22—185 

Miller & Co.'s Ranche. (Opposite Fort Kearney.) Hay, corn, stabling 
and general accommodations. On the bank of the Platte, at the 
crossing. Here the river is divided by several islands, and is two 

miles in width ; difficult crossing at high water 10 — 195 

Deep ravine. Steep descent 13 — 208 

Two and a quarter miles beyond, is a good place for camping, on a low 
bench, twenty rods south of the road. No timber but willow. 

A 



48 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

Deep Dry Creek. No timber on it 3 211 

Deep Dry Creek 6 217 

Head of Grand Island is about opposite to this creek. 

Elm Creek. Deep bank ; plenty of timber „ 4 221 

Road leaves the river near timber. Good camping place , 6 — 227 

Crossing of Buffalo Creek 4 — 231 

Road runs near the river. Grass, wood and water 13 — 244 

Willow Lake. South of the road. Good place to camp, but no 

timber 7—251 

Utah Lake. South of the road 8 259 

Deep Dry Creek , 2 — 261 

Low sandy bluffs, extending to the river 14 — 275 

You will not strike the river for sixteen miles, but will have no diffi- 
culty in finding feed and water. 

Skunk Creek. Six feet wide 5 — 280 

Crossing of Skunk Creek. No timber, but grass and water 6 — 286 

Good spring of cold water. At the foot of the bluffs, north of the road, 

at the head of the Pawnee Swamps 7 — 293 

Low, sandy bluffs. Opposite the junction of the North and South 

Platte. Altitude, 2,685 feet 1—294 

Carrion Creek. Ten feet wide and one foot deep. Good place for grass 

but no timber 3 —297 

Road, river and timber. Good place to camp 5 — 302 

Wide, deep creek. Here the party can get Willow-brush for fuel. .... 6 — 308 

Black Mud Creek. Little feed for teams 3 — 311 

Small Creek. Steep banks ; v^ry little water 6 — 317 

North Bluff Fork. Six rods wide, and two feet deep 3 — 320 

Sandy Bluffs. West foot 6—326 

Sandy Bluffs. East foot 4—330 

Bluff Creek. Four feet wide and one foot deep 2 — 332 

Small Creek, — running between the bluffs. . . 6 — 338 

Bluff spring, and small creek _*-.-. 3 — 341 

In the neighborhood of these creeks the land is swampy and soft. 

Goose Creek. Thirty feet wide, and three inches deep 3 — 344 

Low range of bluffs, sandy, one-fourth mile wide. Many springs of 
cold water at the foot of the bluffs. 

Small Creek. Four feet wide 2—346 

Shoal Stream. Three feet wide 2—348 

Rattlesnake Creek. Twenty feet wide and eighteen inches deep 4 — 352 

Creek. Six feet wide. Land sandy 7 — 359 

Camp Creek. Eight feet wide 4 — 363 

Two creeks here, about the same size, but a few rods apart. 

Creek. Three feet wide 4—367 

Wolf Creek. Twenty feet wide 2—369 

At the east foot of sandy bluffs you will probably have to double 
teams, if heavily loaded. 

Watch Creek. Eight feet wide, and two feet deep 4 — 373 

Ash Hollow. South side of the river 7 — 380 

Castle Creek. Six rods wide, and two feet deep. Swift current, water 

muddy 3 — 383 

Castle Bluffs. South side of the river 5 — 3S8 

The party will cross but few creeks of water for twenty-five miles. 



emigrant's GUIDE TO IDAHO. 49 



Sand Hill Creek. South side of the road 1 

Creek, or Slough 9—397 

Dry Creek. Thirty feet wide 5—402 

Crab Creek. Twenty feet wide ; very shoal 4 — 406 

Two miles further you will find some high bluffs on the right. By 
ascending one of the highest, the visitor will see Chimney Rock to 
the west. 

Small lake, south of road 2 — 408 

Cobb's Hills, west fort 8—416 

Party will find it sandy for ten miles. 

Ancient Bluff runs north side of road, resembling the ruins of ancient 

castles 2—418 

Road joins the river, — good place to camp 11 — 429 

Low, sandy bluff, west fort 9—438 

The land for several miles is soft in wet weather, but good traveling in 
dry weather. 

Chimney Rock, south side of river 14 — 452 

Here the land begins to be sandy and barren. Prickly pears and wild 
sage continue during the remainder of the journey. 

Scott's Bluffs, south side of river 20—4*72 

Spring Creek, south side of road 4 — 476 

Road runs near the river, — good chance to camp 12 — 488 

Creek 200 yards south of road 5 — 493 

By ascending the highest bluff, a view can be got of Laramie Peak, in 
the Black Hills. 

Timber north side of the river 11 — 504 

Raw Hide ci eek. Plenty of grass 6 — 510 

River opposite Fort Laramie 12 — 522 

FORT JLAB1AMI1S consists of both military and trading sta- 
tion. A good assortment of merchandise is kept here. 

Dry Creek 4—526 

Good cold springs on right of road, near cottonwood trees 7 — 533 

Road joins river. Wood, water and grass 7 — 540 

Alder clump on left of road. Good place to camp 9 — 549 

For the next nine miles the road is somewhat sandy 9 — 558 

River. Good camping ground ; wood, water and timber 9 — 567 

The road is now rough. After leaving the river four miles, the road 

descends to the river again 4 — 57 1 

Steep and craggy ascent. Road mountainous 10 — 581 

Road descends near the river. Sandy 5 — 586 

High, rolling, barren country for some distance. Low lands bordering 

upon the river 16 — 602 

Ferry of the Platte. Road rough 3 — 605 

Upper Platte ferry and ford 2—607 

Plenty of feed and some timber. 

Road turns south and rises a long hill 7 — 614 

Mineral springs and lake. No bad taste to the water 6 — 620 

Rock avenue and deep descent 7 — 627 

The road here parses between high rocks, forming a kind of avenue or 
gate way, for a quarter of a mile. 

Alkali swamps and springs. The party must avoid camping here. 

There is a creek north-west, in timber, and better grass 2 — 629 



50 IDAHO, AND ITS GOLD-FIELDS. 

Small stream of clear spring water. Good camping place . . 4—633 

Plenty of grass; no wood, but plenty of buffalo ch'ps. 

Prospect Hill. Fleasant view of the surrounding country to the Sweet 

Water mountains. Antelope and deer 4 — 637 

Bad slough. Plenty of grass, but little water. Hi ly 4 — 641 

Small creek left of road. Grass plenty. Use buffalo chips 6 — 647 

Grease-wood creek, six feet wide, one foot deep. Very little grass, no 

fuel but wild sage. Road to Sweet Water sandy 2 — 649 

Alkali springs and lakes. Here gather saleratus from a lake west of 

the road. The land is swampy and smells bad 6 — 655 

Sweet Water river, eight rods wide, two feet deep, swift current. Grass 

plenty, but litt'e wood 4 — 659 

Independence Rock and road. On the north side of the river, about 
600 yaids long and 120 wide, composed of hard granite. Here a 
party of emigrants celebrated the Fourth of July, and named the 

rock 1 — 660 

Devil's Gate. A little west from the road 5 — 665 

The river here passes between perpendicular rocks 400 feet high. Fre- 
mont passed through the gate in a skiff. 

Creek, six feet wide. Good camping ground. 1 — 666 

You will find grass all along the river, but no timber. 

Deep ravine and creek 6 — 672 

Road leaves the river and passes over a high bluff 4 — 676 

Sage Creek. No grass, sage plenty. In two miles you arrive at river 

again 5---681 

Creek, three feet wide. Road runs close to river 4 — 685 

Bitter Cottonwood Creek. Some timber on it. After this the road 

leaves the river for six miles 3.— -688 

Road arrives at the river 6 — 694 

Leave the old road and ford the river 1 — 695 

Road turns between the two ridges, (ford twice) 1 — 696 

Ford No. 4. Good camping place 8 — 704 

Pure water for sixteen miles. 

Ice Springs 6 — 710 

This is a low, swampy spot of land, on the right of the road. Ice may 
be found by digging down two feet. There are two alkali lakes a 
little further. 

Steep descent from the bluffs ,,« 10—720 

Ford of Sweet Water, No. 5. Grass and willow brush 1 — 721 

Road joins the river and fords it , 4 — 725 

Creek, two feet wide. Cold spring to the left , 4 — 729 

Road leaves the river. Good camping place , 2 — 731 

After this the road winds around and over a succession of hills and 
bottoms (or three miles. 

Soft swamp and small. No place to camp 6 — 737 

Strawberry Creek, five feet wide. Grass and willows 4 — 741 

Branch of Sweet Water, two rods wide, two feet deep. Good plaee to 

camp. Wood and grass plenty 4 — 745 

Willow Creek, eight feet wide, two feet deep. Good camping place. 

Ford three feet deep < 2 — 747 

Sweet Water, three rods wide, three feet deep . 5 — 752 

South Pass, or summit of dividing ridge 9 — 761 

Here the party leave the California trail, if they wish to go via Lander's 
Cut-off, and take the right hand road. They will find a small creek 

four miles from the post ,. ,.. 4-765 



51 

Sweet Water, eight or ten miles. 10 — 775 

Small creek. Good feed and wood 9 — 784 

Big Sandy. Party will cross Little Sandy, and can camp on it 10 — 794 

Leaving of Big Sandy. Party will cross rugged bluffs , . . 5—799 

This ftream, as well as all others here, abounds in trout. The writer 
caught one here that weighed two pounds. 

Small creek. Good grass and water « 8 — 807 

The party is now between two ranges of snow-clad mountains, and may 
see Fremont's Peak by looking to the north. 

Green River. "Wood and grass. Here you ford the river 15 — 822 

Second fork of Green River. Wood and grass plenty 8 — 830 

Leaving cf Second fork. Here you wi.l find a bad place to ford ; do 

not go too low down to cross 5 — 835 

Fourth fork of Green river 15 — 850 

Here, a little west of the river, may be seen the grave of Martin Moran, 
who was killed by the Indians, the 18th of July, 1862. 

Creek at base of mountains 9 — 859 

Here you follow up a ravine, and camp on the creek, at the base of 

snow-clad hills . .. 6—865 

Creek. Good feed, wood and water. (Steep canon to ascend) 11 — 876 

Five miles good wood, water and grass . „ 5 — 881 

The party is now on the Bear River chain of mountains. 

Canon Creek. Heavy hills 14 — 89 5 

Smail creek, near Salt river. Heavy hills 10 — 905 

Here nearly all of our party got sick, and you will have to be careful of 
yourselves, as it rains every day and freezes at night. 

Salt River 10—915 

Mouth of canon 13 — 928 

Creek at mouth of narrow canon. Here you will pass salt springs, 

where you may got as fine salt a3 can be found anywhere 7 — 935 

Beautiful valley. Water, wood and gras3 „ 8 — 943 

Cold spring in sight of Tiver 10 — 953 

Small creek. Party will pass a large marsh. Here we run a huge 

grizzly into the cane-brakes and lost him 10 — 963 

Blackfoot Creek. Beautiful valley 6—969 

Party Trill have to go to the hill-sides to get fuel. Here the emigrant 
will take the right hand road fur Snake River ferry. 

Wolf Creek. Road rough until you reach Snake River bottom 8 — 977 

Luce's Creek. Wood, water and grass at all these creeks 12 — 989 

Divide Creek 14—1 003 

John Gray's Creek 12—1015 

Snake River ferry, ownod by Harry Rickard, who is very obliging, 

always ready t ) accommoda-te. This is the best ferry on the river. . 8 — 1023 

When you leave Sn ike river, fill your kegs , 10—1033 

Cumas Creek. Barren country, — no grass until you arrive at creek. . 24 — 1057 
Scott's Ranche. Good feed, wood and water 26 — 1083 

You will now re-cross the Rocky mountains to the eastern side. 

Summit Creek 9—1 092 

The party will take the right hand road between this camp and the 
next one, if you are going to Virginia City. 

Johnston's Springs 20 — 1112 

Camp on Read Rock 14—1126 

Horse Creek Ranche 23—1149 

Bannock City 1 1—1 160 



52 



ROUTE FROM DEER CREEK TO GALLATIN CITY. 

Upon our map we have a route leading from the mouth of Deer Creek, which 
is some eighty miles west of Fort Laramie upon the Platte, to Gallatin City at 
the three forks of the Missouri. Mr. Bozeman, of Virginia City, surveyed the 
4-oute last season, and will escort a train over the yoad the coming summer. To 
him we are indebted for the following table of distances : 

From Deer Creek to Powder River 100 Miles. 

" Powder River to Tongue River 35 " 

" Tongue River to Rose Bud , 20 " 

" Rose Bud to Little Horn . 15 4l 

" Little Horn to Big Horn 20 '• 

" Big Horn to Nez Perces Fork 40 " 

" Nez Perces Fork to Clark's Fork 10 " 

" Clark's Fork to Yellow Scone 15 * 

Travel up the Yellow Stone , 60 4v 

From leaving of the Yellow Stone to Gallatin River 16 " 

Then down the Gallatin River to Gallatin City 40 " 

From Deer Creek to Gallatin City , 371 " 

From Gallatin City to Virginia City , 50 " 

" Virginia City to Bannock City ...»..« 70 " 

" Gallatin City to Fort Benton. 130 " 



FROM SOUTH PASS TO SODA SPRINGS BY FORT BRIDGER. 

TABLE OF DISTANCES. 

South Pass 761 Black Foot, fourth time ... . 2 — 865 

Pacific Springs , . . . . 3 — 764 Small stream — swift current, 3 — 868 

Dry Sandy ... /. 11 — 775 Stream — good camping ... . 4 — 872- 

Junction of California and Fort Bridger 8—880- 

Oregon roads 6—781 Big Muddy 8—888 

Little Sandy 8—789 Little Muddy ., 12—900 

Big Sandy 8—797 Good camping 30—930 

Big Sandy again 17 — SI Cold Springs 15—945 

Green River ford 10—824 Smith's Fork 8—953 

Road leaves Green river 5 — 829 Spring Fork 3 — 956 

Black Foot Creek 15—814 Large stream 8—964 

Hourisfork 4—848 Willow Spring 24—988 

Black Foot again 2—850 Ilallf-ck Fork 10—998 

Small Creek 11—861 Quaking Asp 12—1010 

Black Foot, third time 2—863 Soda Springs ,,,,,, , 15—1025 

Here you strike the Salt Lake and Bannock route. 



ORGANIZATION OF MONTANA 



DISCOVERIES AND DEVELOPMENTS 

of 1864. 



One year has elapsed since we published the foregoing 
portion of this pamphlet, since which time many changes 
have occurred in Idaho. The territory, then of an immense 
size, has been divided by act of Congress, and the new terri- 
tory of Montana organized, embracing a large portion of its 
domain, while a large tract has also been attached to Dakota, 
thus leaving Idaho wholly on the west side of the Rocky 
Mountains. The boundaries of the new territory are as 
follows : 

"Commencing at a point formed by the intersection of the 
twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington 
with the forty-iifth degree of north latitude ; thence due west 
on said forty-fifth degree of latitude to a point formed by'jts 
intersection with the thirty-fourth degree of longitude west 
from Washington ; thence due south along said thirty-fourth 
degree of longitude to its intersection with the forty-fourth 
degree and thirty minutes of north latitude to a point formed 
by its intersection with the crest of the Rocky Mountains ; 
thence following the crest of the Rocky Mountains northward 
till its intersection with the Bitter-Root Mountains; thence 
northward along the crest of said Bitter-Root Mountains to its 
intersection with the thirty-ninth degree of longitude west 
from Washington ; thence along said thirty-ninth degree of 
longitude, northward, to the boundary line of the British 
possessions ; thence eastward along said boundary line to the 
twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington ; 
thence southward along said twenty-seventh degree of longi- 
tude to the place of beginning." 



4 IDAHO AND MONTANA. 

In these supplemental remarks it is not our purpose to 
reiterate any statement made in the foregoing, as that portion 
of our pmphlet, though a description of Idaho, refers more 
particulary to what is now Montana — we, at the time of 
writing, having under discussion the mines and settlements of 
that portion of Idaho lying east of the Kocky Mountains, 
from which Montana has since been organized. 

During the past season an immense emigration, prece- 
dented by none save the early rush to the Eldorado of the 
Pacific, has swelled the mountain gorges and valleys of Mon- 
tana. Miners, merchants, speculators and professional men, 
by thousands, from the Pacific, have greeted and commingled 
with the countless multitude from the States, that swept like 
a mighty avalanche across the continent. 

Thus Montana, which, but two years ago was considered 
a vast waste, inhabited only by the Indian and the buffalo, 
has felt the steady tread of the Anglo-Saxon, before whom 
the wilderness of the West, as well as the Indian, disappears 
forever. 

The clatter of the domestic hoof, the tinkle of the cow- 
bell, and the echo of the woodman's axe and hammer, have 
broken the awful silence of these mountain fastnesses, and 
recorded upon the annals of time, another stupendous stride 
in the march of civilization. 

Mines have been discovered, towns and cities built up, 
agricultural valleys occupied and developed, churches built, 
schools organized, court-houses erected, and a Legislature 
elected, which is, at this writing, sitting in a town the site of 
which three years ago had never felt the tread of the white 
man! 

STAMPEDE HOMEWARD THE CAUSE. 

Notwithstanding the mines have been develeped, and gene- 
ral improvements of the country carried to a considerable 
extent, yet a stampede movement occurred during the months 
of August and September, which was owing to several causes. 
First, a thousand and one, as the saying is, who have never 
ventured beyond the limits of their own borough or city, 
always spending their time at some non-laborious avocation, 
or lounging about hotels and saloons, are the first to rush into 
a new country, especially a mining country, where they expect 
to realize a fortune without labor, and are generally the first 
"to see the elephant!" and hence, as a natural consequence, 
a homeward stampede occurs. Especially was this the case 



ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD. 



TWO DAILY TRAINS leave Chicago, morning and evening, from 
the Great Central Depot, foot of Lake street, 

FOR ST. LOUIS, DIRECT, 

Connecting at St. Louis with the North Missouri and Pacific Railroads, also 
with steamers on the Missouri river, 

FOR ST. JOSEPH AND ATCHISON, 

From which point the Overland Stage Company's stages leave for 

DEIIEB,iDUI,aLTUUUDCUINIIIL 

Connections are also made at Tolono with the 

Grreat ^Western Railroad^ 

which connects at Quincy and Hannibal with 

The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, 

for the above points. 

f3§T" Passengers by this Line have the choice of going via 
St. Louis or Quincy. 

Time as quick as any other Route, audi Faro 

as Iotv. 



Through Tickets and Baggage Checks 

To the Missouri river can be obtained at the office of the 
Company, in the Great Central Depot. 

w. P. ARTHUR, 

GEWEEAL STTFEBINTEM-DEN'T- 

W. P. JOHNSON, 

General Passenger Ag^ent, 



Ho ! for the Gold mines of Idaho ! 

MONTANA AND IDAHO 

TRANSPORTATION LINE. 



The new, fast and light-draught steamer 

DEER EODQE, 

THOMAS W. REA, Commander, Henry A .. Dohrman, Clerk, 
Now being built at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, expressly for the St. Louis 
and Fort Benton trade, will leave Pittsburgh for Fort Benton and inter- 
mediate points on SATURDAY, February 18th, and leave St. Louis 

On Saturday, March 4rth, 

or as soon thereafter as the river is open to Omaha and Council. Bluffs. 

The new, fast and very light-draught steamer 

IBE3STT03ST, 

WM. HOWARD, Commander, Lewis L. Hine, Clerk, 

Will leave for Fort Benton and intermediate points 

On Saturday, March 11th. 

The new, fast and light- draught steamer 

YELLOWSTONE, 

JOS. MAYHOOD, Commander, Stanly Ryland, Clerk, 

will leave as above 

On Saturday, March 18th, 

The very fast and light-draught steamer 

E^ISHSTY OGDEN, 

THOS. TOWNSEND, Commander, Moses Hillard, Clerk, 

will leave as above 

On Saturday, April 15th. 

The Steamer DEEIS 3L.OI>OE 

Wil 1 remain between Forts Union and Benton until the cargo of all the 
boats k of this line is delivered at Fort Benton. By this arrangement 
%hippers have great advantages, and an assurance that their freight will 
be delivered at its destination. 

We are also prepared to furnish land transportation 

FROM FORT BENTON TO THE MINES, 

and will give Ihrough Bills of Lading to 
SIL/FR CITY, LAST CHANCE, PRICKLY PEAR, DEER LODGE, 
; VIRGINIA CITY, BANNOCK CITY and GALLATIN. 

S. E. corner Main and Olive streets. ) St. 
c"3 SJ" TC Commercial street. >• Loui s, 

., Convent st., bet. Secon d and Third. ) Mo, 



VIRGINIA CITY. 5 

in California in 1849 and 1850, and also in Colorado in 1859 ; 
but the rebound of emigration that swept across the country 
to California the succeeding year, and to Colorado in 1860, 
attest the fallacy of these homeward stampedes, and are living 
arguments in favor of the incalculable mineral wealth of the 
Great West, which is being divided and subdivided into States 
and territories, and is now pouring its gorgeous stream of 
auriferous wealth into the financial arms of our country. 

A correspondent of the "Chicago Evening Journal" thus 
speaks of Montana : 

"Keaching this place [Yirginia City] last week, I found 
every one excited over the recent discoveries on the Yellow- 
stone river, one hundred and thirty miles north-east of this 
town. A gulch had been found seventeen miles in length, 
which pays from ten to fifty dollars per day to the hand. 
Large stampedes thither have already taken place, and even 
while I write a large party is passing, all en route to the new 
diggings. Quite a town has sprung up already, which bears 
the name of Yellowstone City. Since the first discovery was 
made several new gulches have been found, and ail are 
reported paying well. It is the intention of your correspond- 
ent to visit these mines during the ensuing week, when he 
will endeavor to post you more fully. 

u One quartz mill has been put in successful operation in 
this vicinity during the present month, and a large number 
are expected in the spring. The indications now are that this 
will prove to be the most profitable branch of mining in this 
territory, as there have been thousands of rich gold and silver 
leads discovered all over the mountains. 

"News from the Kootenay and Prickly Pear Mines are 
encouraging, and the prospects of the whole mining region 
look extremely favorable, compared to what they were a few 
weeks since. 

" The emigration, it is thought, has all got in, and nearly 
alFgone. It is estimated that between seventy-five and one 
hundred thousand persons have been here this season, and 
quite four-fifths have returned to the States. Trains of one 
hundred^and -jfifty wagons each, all loaded with passengers, 
have^left this place, homeward bound. A party of about 
three hundred persons leave here for the States next week, 
via the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. 

"A considerable improvement has been made during the 
last two months. A weekly newspaper, called the "Montana 
Post," has been established, two churches put in course of 



IDAHO AND MONTANA. 



construction, and several very fine cut-stone-front buildings 
erected, besides hundreds of nouses and stores built of hewn 



logs. 



" The Gallatin farmers are bringing in their produce, which 
looks as fine as any I ever saw in the States. Cabbages weigh- 
ing from six to nine pounds, turnips from two to five, and 
other things in proportion. Some very nice corn has been 



grown." 



As to the extent and richness of these newly discovered mines 
spoken of by this correspondent, we are unable to speak; but 
that discoveries were made upon the Yellowstone, causing a 
large stampede thither, we aver, yet it will require time to 
develop them. Much excitement also prevailed 'during the 
summer and autumn, with respect to thellootenay and Prickly 
Pear Mines, the former of which are situated in the British 
possessions, and are spoken of in the preceding pages under 
the head of Saskatchewan Kiver. 

To these mines many a gold-seeker wound his way the past 
season, after having failed to accumulate upon the spur of the 
moment a fortune at the Virginia or Bannock City Mines, 
only to be again disappointed in not finding the streams flow- 
ing upon beds of gold, and the mountains living monuments 
of shining ore. In fact there are countless numbers who are 
swept along by the wave of excitement— such as swept over 
our country last season — who would fail to succeed, and 
return home, disgusted with the country, were the mountains 
a solid mass of gold. There is also another class who are 
among the first to return home, and to whom these stampedes 
are more attributed than to any other. They are s*uch as 
have good homes and means of livelihood in the States, and 
who go to a new country, expecting to accumulate a fortune 
in a few months, and then return home and live at ease ; and 
when upon reaching the mines they find it requires great 
industry and perseverance to succeed, therefore they are 
the most ready to turn homeward. 

We do not make these remarks for the purpose of giving 
the impression that all can succeed in a mining country, as 
that would be impossible. While there is no country where 
large fortunes are so speedily accumulated, yet in the lottery 
of mining there are very many blanks, and I doubt very much 
if there is a country in the world where there is so great a 
proportion of its people poor as in a mining country. The 
news, however, of an occasional "big strike," or of some 



PJTTSBUR6H. FT. WAYNE 

and Chicago ^Railway* 

THE SHORTEST LINE"fR0W1 CHICAGO TO 

NEW YORK, 
BOSTON, 

BALTIMORE, 

PHILADELPHIA, 

WASHINGTON, 

CLEVELAND, ERIE, 

DUNKIRK 
BUFFALO, 
ALBANY, 
PITTSBURGH, 
HARRISBURG, 
COLUMBUS, 
CINCINNATI, 
WHEELING, 

And all cities and towns between Chicago and those points. 



Trains leave the West side Union Depot, corner, of 
Madison and Canal streets, Chicago, on arrival of Trains from 
the West, as follows : 

iml£lxxj ianx* 3es2:f:oje:s*s;, 

Every Morning, Except Sundays. 

fast XjXisnn: j9lnt> Esxii^EfHiss 

Every Evening, through without detention. 

THERE IS NO GHANGE10F GAKS 

between Chicago and Pittsburgh, and but one change between Chicago and 
Philadelphia, New York or Baltimore. 



Through ExpressJ Train every Saturday Evening. 

Are run on all Night Trains, and Baggage checked through to all Eastern 

cities, and handled FREE. 

C^~ To secure the SHORTEST ROUTE, the GREATEST COMFORT, 

and the SAVING OF TIME, 

£SK FOB TICKETSVIATHE FQRTWAYHE^ROID. 

For sale at the principal Ticket Offices in the West ; at the Company's 

Office in Chicago, corner of Randolph and Clark streets ; 

and at the Union Depot, West Side. 

. "W. C CLEL AND, Gen'l Western Passenger Agent, Chicago. 



GILBERT HUBBARD & CO., 



AND 

SAIL MAKERS. 



T\WIN-ES, OOHDAOE, 

LINEN AND COTTON CANVAS, 

TENTS, WAGON COVERS, 

AND TARPAULINS. 

205 and 207 South "Water Street, 

Corner of 'Wells Street CHICAGO, ILL. 

G. HTJBBABD. J. S. TURNER. G. B« CARPENTER. 

A. £. BISHOP,i; 

(Established in [1845.) 

MANUFACTURER OF 



on the -wide and narrow gang^e, 

MADE OF 

SELECTED DRY MATERIAL, WARRANTED, 

At "Wholesale or Hetail,* 
I¥o§, 12 and 16 South Jefferson-street, 

CHICAGO, ILL 



MINES AT BANNOCK. 7 

newly discovered mines, is sufficient to set a "mining camp" 
all ablaze with excitement, and the ever-alluring phantom 
that hangs over a miner's couch, like the polar star, is ever 
leading him from one field of labor to another, find thus he is 
borne along by the heat of excitement, and passes a very 
happy life. 

GULCH MINES. 

The mines of Bannock have not paid as well the past season 
as they did in 1863, many of the claims having been worked 
out. Several quartz mills have been put into operation the 
past year, and many quartz lodes discovered. Bald Moun- 
tain, twelve miles north-west of Bannock, has been the scene 
of a good deal of excitement. Quartz, both gold and silver, 
have been discovered, and it is believed that this mountain 
will prove astonishingly rich when the lodes are developed, 
which requires capital and machinery. 

A private letter from Bannock thus speaks of the mines in 
that neighborhood : 

" The gulch or bar diggings have not paid much this season. It was very 
late when the miners commenced operations, owing to the high water in 
Grasshopper Creek. I am told the mines have paid well at Virginia. There 
has been but little quartz mining done here. Nearly all claim-owners have 
been prospecting for new leads, and have made a large amount of discoveries 
of silver leads on Rattlesnake, and several gold leads near Bald Mountain ; 
but the miners are mostly on the sell, not much on the work. My mill has 
not done anything through the summer. I commenced running twenty-eight 
stamps about a week ago, but will stop to-morrow for the want of quartz." 

At Virginia City the gulch mines have proved exceedingly 
rich, and many quartz lodes have also been discovered during 
the past season, and many quartz mills are expected there the 
coming spring. The general improvement of the town has 
been carried to a considerable extent, while the valleys of the 
Jefferson, Madison aud Gallatin forks of the Missouri have 
been settled for a hundred miles from their junction, and 
farming fairly inaugurated in these mountain dells, where but 
a few months ago the timid fawn reposed in its native bower, 
un scared by the white man. 

The Prickly Fear mines have also created much excitement. 
The gulch mines at this point are reported as having paid 
well, while immense gold and silver lodes have been discovered 
in the surrounding mountains. In fact the whole country 
bears a much better aspect in a mining point of view than it 
did a year ago, and all that is now wanting is capital and 



8 IDAHO AND MONTANA. 

machinery to make Montana famous among mineral countries 
— the richest of the rich. 

During the past season mail routes have been established 
in Montana, and a daily mail is now carried between Virginia 
and Salt Lake Cities, by Mr. Holliday, of New York, the 
proprietor ef the Great Overland Stage Line from Atchison, 
Kansas, to Salt Lake, California, Montana and Idaho. By 
this line Virginia City is reached from Atchison in from fifteen 
to eighteen days, which is a great saving in time to the emi- 
grant, when compared with a long, tedious trip across the 
plains by private conveyance. The writer has tried both 
ways, and is satisfied that to travel by stage is preferable, and 
much the cheapest. 

In the spring of 1863 we paid fifty dollars to have our 
blankets and provisions carried through by wagon, and were 
twelve weeks in reaching Bannock from Omaha. Had we 
gone by stage the fare would have been $300 in greenbacks. 
Allow, if you please, twenty days to make the trip by stage, 
which would have been quite sufficient, which deducted from 
twelve weeks, the time it took us to go by private conveyance, 
and we have sixty-four days left, which at $5 in gold per day, 
the amount we went to work for the day after arriving at the 
mines, would amount to $320 in gold, which at 225 per cent, 
would amount to $720 in greenbacks, to which add the $50 it 
cost us to go by wagon, and we have the sum of $770. Now 
to ascertain the amount we should have made by going by 
stage we will deduct $300, the amount of fare by stage, and 
we have $470. Time is money, and this sum was lost in time 
wasted upon the plains/ Besides, those who reach the mines 
early in the season have much the best opportunities for pro- 
curing good claims. 

To those who go by their own conveyance we would say, 
that the foregoing tables of articles comprising what is neces- 
sary for an outfit for their trip is estimated too low for the 
coming season, and it would be well for those who contemplate 
going to calculate on paying nearly double those figures, as 
stock, wagons and provisions have gone up. 



FIRST NATIONAL BANK 

OF 

OMAHA, ISTEB. 

E. CREIGHTON, President. H. KOUNTZE, Cashier. 

Is now in operation and prepared for the transaction of 

A @©i©fil BiiMif Bistpss* 



GOLD DUST BOUGHT AT HIGHEST CUEEE|JT EATES. 

Deals in Ooln, TTncTurrent Funds, fcancl 
Warrants aracl O-o-vemment Voxieiiers. 

Prompt attention paid to all Collections sent us upon accessible points in 
the States and Territories, and Exchange sold upon all the . 
principal cities of the United^States and Europe. 



IT* The patronage of [the public! is "respectfully solicited. 

KOUNTZE BROTHERS, 

BANKERS 



—AND- 



General Collection Agents, 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA, 

AND DENVEE, COLQEADO. 

Collections in Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado promptly attended to, and 

the proceeds, less the current rate of Exchange, remitted upon 

day of payment. Taxes paid and Land Warrants 

bought and sold, or located. 



THE HIGHEST MARKET PRICE PAID FOR GOLD DUST. 

Dealers in Foreign and Domestic Exchange, Ooin, Uncurrent Funds 

and Government Vouchers. 

B 



GEORGE F. FOSTER, 

[and Sail-Maker, 

217 South. 'Water Street, Chicago, Illinois, 

(WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DEALER IN 

MANILLA, TARRED AND COTTON ROPE ; COTTON AND HEMP 

CANVAS, ANCHORS, CHAINS, BLOCKS, TWINES, OAKUM, 

TAR, PITCH, PAINTS, OILS, ROOFING FELT, ETC. 

Also on hand and made to order- 

WAGON-COVERS, TENTS, AWNINGS, 

o 
either of new or secnd-hand Canvas, 

FLAGS OF EVERY DESCRIPTION, 

HOISTING MACHINES FOR STORES. 

All -which I offer at the lo^vrest market price. 



THE TERRITORY OF UTAH. 

Area, 100, 88^ Square Miles, 68,386,560 acres— Population, 90,000. Capital, 
Great Salt Lake City — Population, 15,000.; 

Utah Territory, so called fr lUan settlers, the Yuta — 

those that dwell in the mountains — was organized by Act of Con- 
gress, Sept. 9, 1850. It comprises a large extent of the country- 
lying within the " great basin of North America," west of the 
Rocky Mountains. It originally included a portion of the new 
Tetri lo and Nevada, 

BOUNDARIES. 

It is bounded o rth by the new Territory of Idaho, 

on the east by Colorado, on the south by Arizona, on the west bv 
Nevada. 

HISTORY, SETTLEMENT, ETC, 

The Mormon jj, after their expulsion from their settlement of 
Nanvoo, in .Illinois, emigated tq chis- Territory, and having loca- 
ted on the borders of the great Salt Lake, assumed a provisional 
form of Government, and ■ their Territory the name of 

- Deseret. I stated, this form ef 

■-•rnment was sun end le name of the Territory 

changed to U 

Settlements were made, in XJt iy as July, 1841. It orig- 

inally former. but by the peace of Guadalupe 

Hidalgo, in 1848, it was ceded to the United States. " The com- 
paratively small beginning in 184 7 has grown and lengthened 
until now the settlements extend a distance of 500 miles north 
and south ; and wherever a valley can be found that can be wa- 
tered, there you will find the industrious, uncomplaining settler, 
making an honest living in the way most congenial to nature and 
most conducive , by the cultivation of the soil. Not 

i cereals produced, but in the 
southern ing cotton, and last 

year e the product of free white 

labor, on of some of our Eastern 

tide. In a word, the desert 
has beer; the fruit t and the frowns of na- 

ture exch \ . and gladr 

. ND SOIL. 

The country for the most partis mountainous, interspersed with 
valleys cultivated by irrigation. 

3Ghe tnelti in tire m< affords in ordinary 

reasons sufficient water fco cultivate the valleys successfully. 

The summer? rm and dry ; the, winters mild and 



10 

open. The fall of snow is light in the valleys and heavy in the 
mountains. The climate may be said to be invigorating and 
healthful, fever and pulmonary complaints being almost unknown. 
The soil, which, to a very great extent, is formed of the moun- 
t.ain washings, consists principally of a gravelly loam, and is well 
adapted to the growth of wheat and other cereals, 

PRODUCTS, ETC. 

Wheat is indeed the great staple product of the Territory. In 
good seasons the average yield per acre is about forty bushels. 
Sixty or seventy bushels are not unfrequently obtained; and in 
some instances as high as eighty bushels have been raised from a 
single acre. Reports of the present season (1864) represent the 
summer as cool and moist, and the prospects favorable for 
&h and ant crops. 

Gats, barley, rye, and flax are cultivated with great success. 

All kinds of vegetables grow astonishingly large, and of a supe- 
rior quality. 

In Washington County, in the southern part of the Territory, 
large fields of cotton are cultivated, the growth of which will be 
sufficient in a few years to supply all the wants of the people. 
Last year quite a considerable quantity of cotton was exported to 
the States at remunerative prices. 

Madder, indigo, figs, grapes, and other tropical fruits are also 
raised in this part of the country. 

Timber is scarce, and being found only in the mountains and 
" kanyons," is very difficult of access. As a consequence of this, 
houses are costly to build, and rents are proportionately high. 

The yield of gold in Utah from 1860 to 1862 inclusive, was 
$80,067. 

It may with truth be said that no country possesses greater 
advantages for the raising of stock than Utah. Horses, cattle,, 
and sheep are not only healthy but they mature early, and the 
latter reach a large growth. During the summer months they are 
herded in large droves on the open plains with but trifling expense, 
while in the winter they are easily subsisted with a little care 
f*nd attention. 

The beef obtained from the cattle fed in this country, owing to 
the nutritious character of the grass, is of a superior quality. 

The climate and soil of Utah is particularly adapted to the pro- 
duction of fruit; and her citizens, no doubt feeling the prompt- 
ings of an internal as well as external nature, have improved their 
opportunities for cultivation. Apples, pears, poaches, apricots, 
plums, grapes, and currants are produced not only in great abun- 
dance but of a superior quality. 

In addition to flouring and other mills necessary for the support 
of the Territory, woollen and cotton factories are being estab- 
lished in different parts of the country for home supplies. 

Great Salt Lake City, being the centre of the surrounding min- 



Established 1864, 



To the Merchants and Mining Men of the 
Rocky Mountains, 



BUTTERFIELDS 

OVERLAND DESPATCH 

FROM ALL THE EASTERN CITIES, 

To all Commercial and Mining Points in 

Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana. 

jggg 6 * Through Contracts given, which include Railroad and 
Overland Transportation, and all Forwarding Commissions on 
the Missouri River. 

7 Hxe Company ISinploys SOOO T'ea.ss&s* 

And last season shipped to Colorado alone. 

Over 14,000,000 Pounds of Freight 

Apply to any Agent of the Company for rates and shipping directions. 
Goods shipped at all seasons of the year. 

PRINCIPAL OFFICE, - - - ATCHISON, KANSAS, 

NEW YOKE— 1 Vesey Street A. W. SPALDING 

BOSTON— 21 State Street J. Q. A. BEAN 

PHILADELPHIA— Cor. Sixth and Chestnut "W. H. MOORE 

CHICAGO— 34 Clark Street H. S. NICHOLS 

ST. LOUIS— 11 Main Street .L. E. FORSYTH 

LEAVENWORTH— Main Street , ISAAC E. EATON 

Through Bills of Lading given from above points. 



D, A. BUTTEEFEELD, Proprietor, 

A. W. SPALDING, General Agent, 



12 

ing districts of Montana, Idaho, and Nevada, a ready market is 
^afforded for all the surplus products of the sc '. Under the influ 
ences of the present fine season, the prices of provisions through 
out the Territory are relax.hu -ably, Prices in the near 

future are exceedingly uncertain, so many unforeseen circum- 
stances operating to make. the scale sli aly up or down; 
but the general impression is, that during the fall the figures will 
be from six to ten dollars per h :' from two to 
three and a half per bushel f o • low prices of 
former years are for ever past. Beef and m >mmand good 
prices — fifteen to twenty Sents for mutton, and twelve and a half 
to fifteen for beef. 

Utah boasts two daily aev ''The, Unic idetfce? 

and the "Telegraph." A reiig: . -- ssc v-sJ') 

and an agricultural sheet (" Farmer's Oracle ") published 

— the former weekly, r semi-rr. 

ROUTES, BIST AN', 

From Chicago or St. Louis the emigrant bound for Utah and 
the Plains has continuous rail be the; various 

outfiting points on the Missouri average travelling 

time to Bait Lake by stage is 12 days ; by light mule outfit, 30 
days, and by heavily-loaded trains, with cattle, TO days. • 



STATE .OF NEVADA, 



- 1 L V E R MINES AND Ml N 1 H G 



, , 52,i94,96C ; Population, 30, u( 



Ajfft, &i,639 Square Mile* ; 
Canon City: Com.a - 



Among the valuable n ".Treat West, the 

young and flourishing St; afitleji te^fce 

placed in the front raj 

PAST HISTORY 

ii a very brief one. Five years ago Mr. Horace Greeley traversed 
the region now known as Nevada,then the outlying western portion 



18 

dredths of it had never had the dwelling of civilized human be- 
ings within sight. He traveled some four or five hundred miles 
within the present limits of the Territory, and never saw so 
much as a field of grain nor a decent house therein, till he struck 
the Carson River, near its " sink," the day before crossing the 
Sierra into California. There was one house — a very new one — 
at Virginia City, now the commercial center of the Territory. 
"At that time (July, 1859) there could scarcely have been two 
hundred decent dwellings in the Territory." 

Three months later (September, 1859), a party of young men 
from Illinois arrived at this point (Virginia City), on their way 
to California. A brief extract from their " log book " will give 
some idea of the condition of affairs at that time. 

' Camping for a day or two, preparatory to the fatigue of crossing the dreaded Sierras into 
California, we learned that a few miners were at work in the vicinity, having found favorable 
indications' and ' prospects' a short time previously. This town, at that time called QpoU\ 
contained in buildings, all counted, three canvas houses or tents, inhabited by about fifty per- 
sons, most of whom spread their bla.nk.ets and slept nightly under the friendly shelter of lomi 
projecting rock or sage bush, cooking and living in the open air. 
'•All were busily engaged in ' prospecting,' locating and staking off lots, and mining sUUu* 
" I suppose a more forbidding, dreary, desolate spot exists not en the face of the globe than 
the site of Virginia City, as it was in '3a. Not a living thing grew on the barren, desert wasta t 
if you except a few, very few, stunted pine and cedar bushes, and Horace Greeley's ' everlast- 
ing sage brush,' interspersed by now and then— say perhaps ten to the acre — solitary blades ot 
grass; in «aort, nouoae attractive but many repulsive features. Yet on this naturally miser- 
able spot, whose only redeeming, yet all powerful feature, was the mineral hlddeu beneath its 
surface, has, in a little more than four years, arisen a magnificent city, rivalling many, even 
rery prosperous ones, on the Atlantic slope, of ten or even twenty years growth." 

Gradually capital began to turn its attention to this unpromis- 
ing region. The " Comstock Lode," which had been discovered 
shortly before, came into the possession of capitalists able to de- 
velop its resourses. Emigration commenced to set in, and things 
began to wear a promising appearance, when the Pi Ute war 
broke out, and progress in any direction was suspended for a pe- 
riod ot nearly three months. The war ceased in July, 1860, 
since which time the Territory and all the principal points in it 
have grown apace, 

PHYSICAL ASPECT AND BOUNDARIES . 

Nevada forms the western boundary of the great basin, molo* 
ed by the Rocky Mountains on the east, and the Sierra Nevada 
on the west. The average elevation of its valleys being at least 
five thousand feet above tidewater, while very little of it is as 
low as four thousand feet. Some of the peaks of the Humboldt 
Mountains are eleven thousand feet in height. 

It is bounded on the north by Oregon and Idaho, on the souUi 
and west by California, and on the east by Utah, and embraces 
an area of nearly fifty-three millions acres. 

CLIMATE, ETC. 

Nevada is remarkably and almost necessarily healthy. The 
winters are of moderate length, with a temperature like that of 



14 

New York, modified to some extent by the mild breezes from the 
Pacific. "No rain falls for six to eight months of each year, and 
there are no swamps. The rivers which run eastward from the 
Sierra lose themselves in " sinks," on the great, usually barren, 
plain that stretches far eastward, thinly covered with the ubiqui- 
tuous, hopeless shrub known as the " sage brush." 

In contrast with, the winters of the Atlantic, those of Ne- 
vada may be regarded as on the whole moderate. A late resident 
of the Territory, during the winters of 1863-64, writes: "Ac- 
counts reach us from all parts of the country east of the Rocky 
Mountains of a winter of unusual severity ; in contrast, we have 
here enjoyed one of unusual mildness. In fact it has been the 
finest winter — if indeed winter it can be called — that I ever saw. 
We have had thus far (Feb. 8) three falls of snow in all, the 
heaviest covering the ground to the depth of some three inches, 
but none of it lasting over two or three days. The balance of 
the time the ground has been bare and dry, the sky unobscured 
hj clouds, the weather warm and pleasant as Indian summer. 
The lowest nip of the mercury has not at any time exceeded five 
degrees below the freezing point." 

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, PRICES, ETC. 

The agricultural resources or products of Nevada are hardly 
worth mentioning. It is essentially a barren country, in an agri- 
cultural sense. A few fertile spots have been found in the State, 
but'they are few indeed — oasis in the great desert. Prices of 
leading articles of consumption during the winter, since which 
time there has been no material change, were as follows : Hay of 
a quality inferior to the " slough hay " of Illinois, but the best to 
be had, sells readily at $85 to $100 ^ tun ; barley, or any kind of 
horse feed, at 6 to 8 c. ^ lb ; potatoes, 4 to 5 c. ^ lb ; cabbage, 
onions, beets, fruits, etc., at 12 -J- to 20 e. ^ lb ; eggs, 75 c, to $1 
3f) doz.; chickens, at $1.25" to $2 apiece; turkeys, $3 to $5 each; 
steak, mutton, pork, and other meats, 15 to 25 c. $Hb; butter 
and cheese, 50 to 75 c. ^ lb ; common lumber (the lumber of 
this region is very inferior), $60 to $75 ty M.; firewood, cedar 5 
$12 to $15 f| cord; pine wood, $20 to $23 f) cord. 

Rents, owing to the high price of lumber and other building 
material, are also exorbitantly high. 

For houses suited to the wants of a small family, $30 to $75 ^ 
month are paid, and for business purposes almost incredible rates. 

MINES AND MINING. 

The silver mines, as before stated, constitute the great and 

permanent wealth of this new State. Even now, when hardly 

five years have elapsed since their discovery, these mines yield a 

•greater annual product than those of any other country, Mexico 

excepted. But little had been done toward developing the miner- 



15 

si wealth of Nevada until the discovery of the "Comstock lode," 
oefore referred to, which memorable event took place iir the 
spring of 1860. No description of this mine can give any ade- 
quate idea of its wonderful weait^i of silver. 

Thus far experience has shown that the deeper the min- 
worked the richer and wider the vein is. Suffice it that all de- 
velopments thus far made, justify the supposition that the wealth 
of the Comstock is limitless. This famous lode has been traced 
for a distance of two miles or more, and is believed to extend 03 
indefinitely, and is owned, for the distance spoken of by perhaps 
one hundred different companies, whose claims vary from 25 to 
2,000 feet each side of the lode, each company being entitle 
the whole depth and width of the vein, whatever that may prove 
to be. Some of these claims sell at high figures, the prices vary- 
ing with the general prospect of the claim when sold, the extent 
of development of the mine, and the quantity and quality of the 
ore then being taken out. 

The mines at Virginia City and immediate vicinity are 
best developed, and for that reason are supposed to be the rich- 
est, as Virginia is the oldest, largest and most prosperous town 
in the State ; but the mines are now being well opened in several 
claims parallel with the Comstock, here, as in various other 
lions ; for instance, those in the Humboldt districts, 180 miles 
north- e ast ; in the Reese River districts, 160 miles east, and in 
the Esmeralda region, 130 miles to the south-west, and many 
others within a circuit of from five to fifty miles. 

YIELD OF THE MINES, 

It is to be regretted that no statistics of the total yield of sil- 
ver in this State have been thus far kept. But a well authenti- 
cated estimate may be formed from the fact that a single express 
company transports from Virginia City alone, an average of fif- 
teen thousand dollars in bullion daily. 

Governor Nye, now United States Senator, in a letter to the 
Secretary of State, subsequently submitted to Congress, states 
that twenty millions of dftilars of precious metals have been ex- 
ported from the Territory since the year 1859, or an average of 
over five millions per annum.* This may seem but a small re- 
turn to those accustomed to hear of the yield of the gold fields ; 
but it must always be borne in mind that silver mine3, unlike 
those of gold ? require patient and long continued toil, and heavy 
capital .well expended, before they yield up their shining treas- 
ures. . The gold yield of the Territory during 1861-62, amounted 
to $53,846. 

* This does not include the yield of the present year. 

THE QUARTZ MILLS 

play a most important part in the mining operations of Nevada. 
In fact, without them but little would be realized from the mines, 



th* mineral being all contained in quartz rock, and requirir 
fee ground to powder and elaborately worked in the mills before 
it can be made available. The present number of mills in open 
tion ie variously estimated at from 300 to 400. all busily 

PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ETC 

Virginia City is the largest place in the State. It stands on 
an elevated bench of land, some 2,000 feet above and eight miles 
distant from the Carson River. The elevation of Virgini 
nearly 6,000 feet above the seaboard. Star City, Humboldt 
City, Union ville, and a few others in the Humboldt ; Jac >« 
ville, Clifton, and Austin, in the Reese Rivo.r ; and A: 
in the Esmeralda districts — are already flourishing towns, 
is confidently believed the mines in their vicinities will 
valuable* Dayton, on the Carson River, eight miles d 
Carson City, the capital of the State, fifteen miles to the 
west; and Washoe City, in Washoe Valley, dfeven miles ; 
are rapidly-growing towns. 

ALL EIGHT AGAI 

<+ . ■»■ ^»» . 

TE»iK:»«>JE»JK:^rM:i«r'«B- «f>3F arm. 

GREAT €ElTMLpE@CTl «&,. 

THE PASSPORT ORDER ABOLISH 

And No Interruption to Through Travel. 

ON AND AFTER MARCH 12/6 $ 

Passenger Trains via 

Hick Central, Railroad- 

Will leave Great. Central, foot of Lak« street, Chieago, at 6 A. M., Sundays 
P,M., Saturdays excepted; 10:00 P. M., Saturdays and Sundays excepted 
^lately at Detrtit.with Trains of the 

GEEAT WESTEEtf AND GEAND TRUNK I 

For Toronto, Montreal, Ogdensburgh, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, 
Springfield, New York and Boston. 
During the temporary suspension of Through Travel, the Micagan Central ha'- 
aad refltttd their famous Coaches, and made all necessary improvements Ur the 
Through Pamengera. 

For Through. Tickets, 

▼fa the Great Central Boute, apply at offices of Uonnecing Boads; in Chicago 
Offices, In Tremont Etouie Block, and at Depot, foot »f Lake Street 

H. C. WENTWORTH, R N. RICE, 

General Weitern Passenger Ag«ut. GeneraJ..<4g^ ■ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 061 232 2 I 



Warn 






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